


This Knotted Maze

by AzureDreamer



Series: This Knotted Maze [1]
Category: Partners: 2541
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 153,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26887603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureDreamer/pseuds/AzureDreamer
Summary: Esterwood is a small, dying town that most people who don't live there don't remember exists. It has a dwindling population with a conservative attitude and nothing else to make it stand out from the more important and interesting nearby Locksmouth. Even by post-splice standards, the town is likely to die out within a few generations as young people migrate elsewhere.But for now, Esterwood is still standing, and Viola Coniglio finds herself with no choice but to live there. Trapped in a disintegrating relationship with her pack and isolated from her peers, Viola takes solace in her passion for sleight of hand and card tricks. But there's much more to Viola than meets the eye, and much more to Esterwood.Watch closely, boys and girls. Because nothing is as it seems.
Series: This Knotted Maze [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961728
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1





	1. Act One - The Best Years of Your Life

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Partners: 2541](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/697696) by Norithics. 



“Pick a card.”

Ursula frowned slightly. “Shouldn't you shuffle the deck, first?”

Viola shook her head patiently. “No, not yet.”

“Well, okay...” Ursula took the cards from Viola's outstretched hands and flipped through them.

“Feel free to look through it as much as you want, to make sure I didn't do anything weird to it.”

“Yeah.”

“Also make sure not to let me see your card. And put it back where you first found it.”

“Uh-huh.” It was hardly the first time that Viola had performed a card trick. It wasn't even the first time she had performed this _particular_ card trick. It wasn't exactly old-hat, but Ursula knew the motions she had to go through for her part. “Okay, picked one.”

“Good. _Now_ I shuffle the deck.”

“I wanna shuffle the deck.” Ursula fiddled with the cards, smirking slightly. “Wanna make sure you don't try anything funny.”

Viola frowned slightly. “O-oh, um-”

“Ursula, do you remember what happened the last time we let you shuffle a deck of cards?” Erin interjected from a desk on the other side of the room, a fake smile plastered on her face. Ursula frowned. “I'm not particularly relishing the idea of playing 52 Pickup in the time before class starts, so please let Viola shuffle.”

“... Fine,” Ursula grunted, reluctantly handing the deck back to Viola. “But I want you all to know that was _one time_ and it was a _big fluke_ and you're all _jerks_.”

“And you're the _best_ alpha a pack could ask for, dahling~” The venom that laced Erin's retort was well concealed, but Viola had known her long enough to know that it was there.

“Guys, just let Viola do the trick,” Vienna interjected wearily from the other side of the room. “It's _way_ too early for this shit.”

Viola shot her twin a pained look, but the damage had already been done. “I'm not preventing her from doing the trick at all,” Erin snapped back. She no longer bothered to hide the bitter coldness that tainted most everything she said to the group these days, and Viola stifled a groan. It was all falling apart. _Again_. She had hoped to at least keep everyone distracted with some card tricks until class started, and from there they wouldn't _have_ to spend time together as a group. It wasn't the ideal solution, but at least they wouldn't be constantly at each other's throats.

 _Again_.

“Um, I'm going to shuffle the deck now,” she interjected. Erin shot Vienna a glare, and Vienna rolled her eyes but declined to rise to the obvious bait. Satisfied that disaster had been averted, at least for now, Viola began to shuffle the cards and everything else faded away. This was her _element_. She held the deck tightly with one hand, dividing it into two and then riffling the two halves together. It was a simple flourish, but visually impressive enough to draw all attention back to her. Ursula's eyes widened in quiet awe, Vienna grinned widely, and even Erin seemed as impressed as she ever was.

Viola did a few more flourishes, the cards dancing in her hands like – well, like magic. They flowed back and forth elegantly in a manner that was simultaneously visually impressive and _entirely_ useless for actually shuffling the cards. But that was the point, really. She didn't need the cards to be shuffled, but she needed her audience to _think_ they were shuffled. It also gave them something flashy to look at while she carefully palmed Ursula's card, slipping it up the sleeve of her baggy hoodie.

It also gave her the opportunity to _really_ show off a bit.

“Okay, now we need to cut the deck. Ursula, you can do that.” Erin opened her mouth to interject with something snarky, but Vienna shut her down with a glare.

Ursula wordlessly reached down and cut the deck. Letting her perform the action was risky, but also helped to get her guard down. Viola had left the cards very slightly out of alignment at the point she needed the cut to happen. It wasn't _guaranteed_ to work, but it was safe enough that Viola was willing to risk it – and, sure enough, Ursula took the bait without even realizing it. “You only need to cut it once.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ursula replied, pushing the deck back towards Viola.

“Okay, so. Now we need to figure out what your card is.”

“Uh huh.”

“We should go about this methodically. First, I'm going to ask the deck to sort itself. Let's start with the spades, then clubs, then diamonds, and hearts last.” Ursula raised an eyebrow as Viola tapped the deck – once, twice, three times – and then picked it up and deftly began to deal. “Ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack, queen, king. Looks like your card wasn't a spade, then.”

“What the _fuck_.” Ursula's eyes had widened again, glimmering with awe. Vienna's grin had vanished, her jaw hanging loose in an almost comical expression of genuine surprise. Even Erin had dropped the cool act and was on the edge of her seat. “How- how the _fuck_ did you-”

“A magician never reveals her secrets,” Viola replied, suppressing a grin. She had spent _months_ practising and perfecting this new technique. It required extensive setup, precise motions, and a high degree of hand-eye coordination. Her mother had made an excellent test audience, and letting the audience cut the cards had been her father's idea – which had been _brilliant_. She didn't think it would have gotten quite this reaction had she not let Ursula cut the deck. Without any further words, she moved onto the clubs and then the diamonds, both in the exact same perfect order. Ursula's card wasn't in either of those suits, which was also Viola's doing. The same essential technique as she had used to ensure that Ursula cut the deck in the correct place, though it was much more reliable when getting the audience to choose a card. Especially since she only needed her to choose a card of a particular suit.

“Okay, hearts next. Ace, two, three, five – ah, there we go.” She laid out the rest of the cards, also in perfect numerical order with only the four missing. With a snap of her fingers – and some very careful manoeuvring of her fingers – the four of hearts materialized out of nowhere in her black-furred right hand. “Is _this_ your card?”

“Uh. Yeah.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Showoff,” she muttered, and Viola winced slightly as Vienna shot her another glare.

Viola carefully gathered up the cards again. “Okay, uh, next trick-”

“I'm going to Locksmouth.”

Viola froze. Every muscle in her body tensed and her heart sank into her stomach as she turned to look at Erin. “I-I was gonna-”

“For college,” Erin continued. “I haven't heard back from them yet, but my application is strong enough I expect to make it in.” Her facial expression was flat and cold, and she looked directly into Viola's eyes. “After this year, I intend to leave Esterwood. And I don't expect I shall ever be coming back.”

Erin's words hung heavily in the air, like heavy humidity forewarning an oncoming storm.

“So that's it, huh?” Ursula sighed bitterly. “This time next year we're just... done?”

“We're already done, Ursula,” Erin replied frankly. “This just makes it official.”

“Well, fuck you too then.”

“You can't _possibly_ blame _me_ for being uninterested in carrying on the charade of friendship with a group of people who I cannot stand,” Erin snapped.

“I can blame you for not even _trying,_ you fucking _leech!_ ” She slammed her fist on the desk, knocking the deck off and scattering the cards on the floor. Viola dove down in a mad scramble to collect them, only to be shoved out of the way along with the desk as Ursula lurched upright indignantly. “You just _latched_ on to me because I'm big and tough and then get bitchy because I'm no longer interested in fighting your fucking battles for you! Battles which _you_ always instigate, by the way, because you're such a colossal _cunt_ that you can't so much as _open your fucking mouth_ without pissing someone off!”

It was Erin's turn to stand up, equally indignant. She was unusually tall for a mouse, allowing her to look Ursula in the eye without craning her neck. “Don't you _dare_ try and lay all the blame on me, Ursula Eckstein. Because the last time I checked, _you_ were this pack's alpha, not I. It's _your_ job to mediate in disagreements between packmates, which you have _never once bothered to do_ because you are _incapable of dealing with a situation you cannot punch in the face like the brute you are_.”

Ursula snarled, her lips pulling back to show off her intimidating canine fangs. “Says the _bitch_ who uses _me_ as an excuse to start fights with everyone she meets.”

“Guys, can we at least wait until after school to have this conversation,” Vienna interjected wearily. “We're _gonna_ get in trouble.”

“Oh, fuck _off_ , Vienna,” Ursula snapped. “Erin might be a leech, but at least when I suggest OC she doesn't say 'oh no sorry maybe some other time' _every single fucking time_. For fuck's sake, even Viola – fucking _Viola_ , the weird kid who had an imaginary friend until she was fifteen – even _she_ contributes more to the pack than you do.”

“Hey, I contribute plenty-”

“You contribute _moralization_ , darling,” Erin corrected.

“All you ever do is bitch that we aren't all a perfect happy family at all times and I'm fucking _sick_ of it,” Ursula growled, turning to face Vienna. Even when the both of them were standing, the doberman was significantly taller than her – with Vienna seated, Ursula _towered_ intimidatingly.

“So what, I'm supposed to be your slutty little fuckbunny whenever you're in the mood? Fuck you, asshole.” Her voice was steady, but her body quivered like a deer in the headlights, betraying her instinctual fear of the much larger predator.

“Don't fucking frame it like I'm constantly demanding sex. We've been packmates for _years_ , and _every_ time _any_ of us asks if you want to OC you _always_ say no.”

It was Vienna's turn to stand up indignantly. “I'm not obligated to have sex with _any_ of you.”

“No! You're not! Which is why whenever you say no, we _drop the subject!_ And then inevitably _you're_ the one who throws it back in our faces, so this time I'm fuckin' cutting you off at the pass. You're a frigid _bitch_ , and if you want to have any say in this pack you're going to have to start contributing something beyond being Viola's sister!”

“Fuck you!”

“No, fuck _you!_ ”

“ _Stop it!_ ”

Viola practically screamed, and it cut through the three-way shouting match like a gunshot in a quiet meadow. All three of her packmates immediately stopped arguing and turned to look at her, hunched over and crying. “J-just stop it, okay? Please?”

Ursula winced, Vienna shuffled, and Erin looked profoundly ashamed of herself. “Uh. Sorry, Viola,” Erin muttered, the first to work up the nerve to break the sudden, awkward silence. “But we need to deal with this eventually or we're _all_ going be miserable all the time.”

“No, Miss Coniglio is correct, Miss Leroux. Math class is not the time or place for this conversation.”

The entire pack froze, and slowly turned to the entrance of the classroom. An elderly dragonfly stood there, frowning deeply at all of them. Behind him stood several of their classmates, nervously glancing into the room while pointedly avoiding eye contact. “Oh, uh, Professor Dawson, we were just-”

“Having a shouting match in my classroom, Miss Eckstein,” he finished. “And not for the first time, either. Did you think no one noticed?” The three standing packmates winced, while Viola slowly curled up into herself, still crying. None of them had ever seen Professor Dawson this _angry_ before. Hell, until now, none of them had seen him angry _period_. His normal, friendly, almost grandfatherly demeanour was replaced with quiet rage, and none of them could work up the nerve to so much as speak up, much less talk back.

Professor Dawson took a deep breath, regaining some amount of composure. “Perhaps, however, Miss Leroux has a point. Perhaps you _should_ deal with your personal differences before it begins to negatively impact your schoolwork.”

“Um, we can talk it out after school, I supp-”

“No, Miss Leroux. You – _all four of you_ – are going to follow me to the counsellor’s office and we are going to deal with this _now_.”

“But-”

“ _Now_ , ladies,” Professor Dawson snapped, and the three girls winced again.

“... Let me just help Viola up, first.” Their teacher nodded tersely, and. Ursula ducked down to help Viola gather the cards she had knocked off the table. The two shared a pained look. “I'm sorry,” she muttered, too quiet for the others to hear it.

“It's not your fault,” Viola replied as she slowly pulled herself together. With some help from Ursula, she stood up, and joined the rest of the pack as they followed Professor Dawson in shameful silence.

~~~~~~

Putting things nicely, Esterwood was a small, tight-knit community. Most everyone knew most everyone else, and they all seemed to get along almost sickeningly well. That just served to make Erin hate the place even more, really. It went _beyond_ stifling. Suffocating, oppressive, and every other euphemism she could think of. It was, at the risk of sounding like the angsty teenager she technically still was, but only technically, something no one understood. Standard, almost stereotypical teenage moaning. But that was part of _why_ no one got it. It wasn't _just_ that she didn't fit into her peer group. She didn't fit into the whole damn _town_. And this wasn't a new development, either. She'd felt this way for years, since she was a small child.

So she had gravitated towards other misfits. The big doberman girl who constantly got into fights. The checkerboard rabbit who talked to mirrors and did magic. Her twin, who clung to her at all times – to the point that people began to _talk_. And it had _almost_ worked, for a while. Ursula would chase off the inevitable bullies that were drawn to Erin and Viola's weakness, and in return they would give her someone other than her immediate family who wasn't terrified of her. They had settled into a sort of uneasy symbiosis, something that _almost_ resembled a normal pack dynamic.

But, then, the thing about friendships of convenience is that they very rarely last. For Erin, the breaking point was that Ursula not only scared off those who would bully her but also those who _wouldn't_. She so, _so_ desperately wanted to fit in. But she didn't have the chance because she had made the mistake of befriending the big dumb oaf.

And so she resented them. It wasn't entirely fair, but, well, _life_ isn't fair. Besides which, she clearly wasn't the only one. Not if the argument a few minutes ago was anything to go by.

She hadn't _intended_ for it to turn into an argument. Not _really_. But, well, she had some longstanding bad habits. It seemed like she _instinctively_ picked the most drama queen moments to do just about anything she ever did, and announcing her decision to abandon this place she hated and never look back was apparently her crowning achievement.

Which had gotten her in trouble. Again. And this time she had dragged her pack right along with her. Which, if anything, made it even _worse_. For all that she maintained that the friction in their relationships was absolutely not her fault, this particular situation _was_. Which they had every right to call her out on, of course. But then they would follow it up by blaming the whole damn thing on her. Of course they would. No mention of Ursula and Vienna's roles in escalating things, or of the _years and years_ of mounting tensions between them. No, it was all Erin's fault because her personality is somewhat abrasive and that makes her such a fucking great scapegoat.

“I have done _nothing_ wrong,” she stated bluntly, glowering indignantly at the school's counsellor. She intended to take this opportunity to nip such scapegoating in the bud.

“Like hell you have!” Ursula snapped right back. “You _started_ the whole damn thing!”

“I merely stated the fact that I intended to go to college in Locksmouth, darling.” Erin replied with a practised coldness. “In case you somehow weren't aware, we are one year away from graduation and there is no college in Esterwood.”

“Oh, fuck off with that bullshit, you were _absolutely_ trying to start shit and you know it!”

“ _Girls!_ ” Erin and Ursula clammed up, turning their attention back to Dr. Baas. “You're already in trouble, please do not actively attempt to make it worse.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the four girls replied in unison. Erin winced as she said it. It made her feel like a _child_. And she was decidedly not a child – in a few months she would be _nineteen_. Certainly, she was past the age when it was appropriate to reply to a teacher in unison with her classmates.

“What are we going to _do_ with you all?” Dr. Baas glared at them, somewhere between tired anger and reluctant disappointment, and Erin found it difficult to keep looking her in the eye. Dr. Baas had that way about her. Doctor Basilisk, was the mental nickname Erin had given to her in middle school. A big, angry snake who turned people to stone with a glare. Fitting, though she had never bothered to _share_ the nickname with anyone else. Partly out of fear of getting in trouble, partially because she doubted anyone other than her would understand the reference.

“If this were the first incident of this kind, I wouldn't be quite so concerned. But you four have been at each other's throats almost every day for the past _year_ and that simply isn't healthy.” Dr. Baas calmly rose to her feet, standing up and up and _up_. She _towered_ over even most of the faculty except for Mrs. Rothschild. It was very easy for the children under her care to be intimidated, something that she took advantage of as the primary disciplinarian in Esterwood's one educational facility. She accented it by flaring her hood and flicking her tongue in irritation. “Your grades have mostly held steady, which kept me from intervening properly sooner. But this just _isn't healthy_ for _any_ of you.”

Erin found her mind wandering back to biology class in sophomore year, on the subject of the anatomy of post-splice humans in relation to the animals whose genetics they had borrowed centuries ago to survive an apocalypse. They shared many instincts and physical attributes with their animal counterparts, but many specific things had been quietly edited out. Chief among those was predator/prey instincts. It wouldn't do to have snakes eating mice in anything other than a euphemistic sense. Besides which, in the wild king cobras mostly ate other snakes, not mice.

Of course, in this particular moment, you sure could have fucking fooled Erin. Even _Ursula_ had her tail visibly quivering between her legs.

One particularly notable physical trait that Dr. Baas shared with her wild counterpart was sheer size. The vast majority of snakes tended towards being enormous. Wild king cobras could reach fourteen feet long, though the human half of the equation tended to tone down larger species' sizes. As it was, she was _only_ a foot and a half taller than Erin. Much of that was her neck, long and serpentine – though, again, not _quite_ as long as Mrs. Rothschild's. There were outliers, of course. Erin herself was six feet tall, despite being a mouse.

But, well, that was besides the point, and a subject she didn't particularly want to dwell on at the moment. Especially since she really should have been paying more attention to Dr. Baas.

“Which is why, starting tomorrow, I am going to be amending your schedules. Whatever class you have for your final period, you will no longer be participating in. Instead, you will be performing community service under my direct personal supervision. Think of it as a team-building exercise.”

“ _What?!_ ” The words felt like a sucker punch directly to her solar plexus, pushing her back and up with sheer outrage. “I _need_ that Pre-Splice Literature 102 credit for my college application!”

“Well, perhaps you should have thought of that.”

“Before _what?!_ Before I _dared_ to _not get along with every person I meet?_ ” Erin found herself being filled with newfound confidence, fuelled by righteous indignation at the situation she found herself in.

“Yes, in fact, Miss Leroux,” Dr. Baas replied coldly, pressing the screen of her PET several times, presumably to bring up Erin's record. “Not only do you not get along with every person you meet, in fact you pointedly seem to antagonize them, actively or passively. In spite of what you seem to think, that kind of attitude will not serve you very well once you graduate. Not here, and _certainly_ not in Locksmouth.”

“I- you- you can't-” Erin sputtered indignantly. “You have _no right-_ ”

“I can and I do, young lady,” Dr. Baas replied succinctly, leaning closer to loom over the much smaller mouse. “Sit. Down. _Now_.”

“... yes, ma'am.”

Dr. Baas sighed, almost relieved. “Don't think I'm singling out Miss Leroux. _All_ of you are at least partially to blame.” She returned to her seat, tenting her fingers like some kind of goddamn supervillain. Her glasses finished the image by glinting slightly in the sunlight. “I don't expect you to be able to repair all the damage you've done to your friendship in the time between now and the end of the school year. But I expect you all to at _least_ behave like goddamn adults. Am I clear?”

“Yes ma'am,” they replied, again in unison. Ursula had a Look on her face, like she wanted to say something. But she apparently decided against it, lest she be made an example of the way Erin had been.

“I expect you all to stop by my office before classes begin tomorrow morning so we can discuss the finer details of your punishment.” Dr. Baas finished. “And if _any_ of you cause _any_ further problems today, expect a suspension for _all_ of you. Dismissed.”

~~~~~~

As a child, Ursula had struggled to understand how something like boxing could exist. It struck her as unfair that if she punched someone in the ring for fun it was perfectly fine, but to punch someone who threatened her or her friends was unacceptable. Even as an adult, the concept of combat sports seemed fundamentally incompatible with human society. There were inertial dampeners, of course. But having such a foolproof safety net if anything encouraged the fighters to get _more_ brutal, not less. Maybe other domes were just more lenient when it came to violence. Or perhaps it was just some fundamental aspect of human nature that no amount of gene splicing could eradicate entirely. She didn't really care all that much about the philosophical implications. She just liked punching things. It was good stress relief.

And lord knows she needed some stress relief.

“ _Raghhhhh!_ ” she shouted in time with a full-force right hook that would have been frankly overkill were this a match and not just beating up a punching bag. It swung away gently, and then forward, perfectly colliding with a left haymaker that was frankly even _more_ impractical. In a match, this kind of relentless full-power offence would have left her exhausted and open to everything her opponent could throw at her. But this wasn't a real match, and this wasn't her _practising_ for a real match either. This was a workout. And, if she was brutally honest with herself, an excuse to lose her temper.

Ursula had always struggled with anger management. She had a foul temper, a short fuse, and poor impulse control, which often got her in trouble as a child. And by often, she meant almost constantly. Boxing had been Dr. Baas's idea. A constructive outlet for her aggression, had been the idea. Her parents had initially been against it – in her father's words, conditioning a kid to let out negative emotions with violence was a terrible idea, safety gear or not. But then Ursula had actually _tried_ it, and it turned out that she was very good at it. And, more to the point, she _enjoyed_ it. No one involved had the heart to tell her she had to stop.

Ursula threw several more punches, the adrenaline coursing through her veins making it feel as though she were moving in slow motion. Though, actually, that probably resulted more from the fact that her inertial dampener was turned up to its highest setting. She was not, technically, supposed to do that. But even on the normal setting, fighting with inertial dampeners on was akin to punching while submerged in molasses until you got used to it. It made fighting almost impossible, so she spent time training on the higher settings. It helped with moving more naturally on the lower settings, which made fights look better.

Plus it made for good strength training. Like weighted clothing but more high-tech. If she could punch hard enough for the bag to swing at all with the dampeners on _high_ , well, that meant you really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a punch with them on low or off without dampeners of your own. Another frustrated roar, another reckless punch, alternating back and forth in perfect rhythm.

“You should probably cool down a bit. Don’t want you hurtin’ yourself, kiddo.”

Ursula grunted. “I know my limits, coach.”

“Ain’t talkin’ to you as your coach. This is a dad conversation.”

“Okay well I don’t really need a dad conversation right now,” she replied tersely, throwing another right.

“I’ll be the judge ‘a that, hon,” her father replied. Coach Eckstein, much like his daughter, was very large. Tall and muscular, a veritable Adonis of a great dane. _Most_ of her class, that she knew of, had had crushes on him at some point when they were younger – which _completely_ baffled her, frankly. There were even a few people who seemed to _still_ have a thing for him, which baffled her even more. Maybe it was just personal bias, because he was her dad and there was that inherent revulsion to the very _thought_ of viewing him in a sexual light. Or maybe it was because she knew him much better than the rest of the school. To them he was the big buff gym coach with the sexy cowboy drawl. To her he was her big dork of a dad. “I heard about what happened.”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Ursula replied in between laboured breaths.

Her father gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’re gonna hafta talk about it eventually, hon. Might as well be now.”

“Augh fine whatever. There’s nothing to talk about. I got into a fight with my friends and we got in trouble and now we’re doing community service, I guess?”

“Look, hon-”

“I get it, okay? You don’t need to rub it in.”

“Ain’t rubbin’ it in, hon.” He sighed. “It ain’t that any of them are bad kids. It’s just... Speakin’ as your coach, I just wanna see you succeed. And speakin’ as your _dad_ , I just want you to be happy. So when I see you spending time with people who just make you miserable, I’ve gotta speak up and say somethin’.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry about _that_ for much longer,” Ursula muttered in response, words tainted with no small amount of bitterness. “Erin’s going to be leaving for Locksmouth once the school year’s up, and I don’t know or care what the twins intend to do with their lives. So congratulations, I’m no longer gonna be a part of that circle of friends you _disapprove of_ so much.”

“It ain’t that simple, Lula.” Ursula winced slightly at the childhood pet name. “An alpha shouldn’t just give up because things are tough.”

“Okay fine. What should I do?”

“I can’t decide that for you.” He gently tousled her hair. “Ain’t that easy, kiddo. You’ve gotta figure it out for yourself.”

“Gee, thanks for the solid advice. I suddenly know exactly what to do to solve all my problems.”

“That’s what dads are for.”

“What about coaches?”

“Well, speakin’ as your coach, I’d advise you to stop settin’ your dang inertial dampeners too high or you’ll hurt yourself.”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “Okay, is there any version of you I can talk to who will give me helpful advice?”

“Well, you could talk to me as a bartender, but that’s still a few years off.”

“Dad I’m eighteen.”

“No booze or mixers ‘til you’re an adult.”

“ _Dad I’m eighteen_.”

“Bein’ eighteen doesn’t make you an adult, hon. I’m the judge ‘a that.” Ursula rolled her eyes again, and he responded with friendly laughter. “You should prolly take five, cool off a bit. Ain’t good to work out full blast with no breaks. ‘specially not when you’re in a bad mood.”

“... fine. You’re right.”

“I’m your dad. I always am. ‘sides, looks like someone wants to talk with you.” He gestured with his head to Viola, who was standing awkwardly at the bleachers. “You two go talk, I’ve got teacher stuff to deal with.” She stared in her general direction, red eyes as wide as dinner plates. Ursula must have been more engrossed in her workout than she thought. Viola stood out when you noticed her – her fur pattern made fading into the background incredibly difficult. So it was easy to sometimes forget that she was small (or at least short), and was very good at being quiet. When she _wanted_ to be stealthy, she was surprisingly good at it.

Upon noticing that Ursula had noticed _her_ , Viola eeped and averted her gaze. Ursula winced slightly at that. She was used to people being intimidated by her, but it still hurt a bit when it was her packmates. “Hey, Viola. ‘Sup?” She walked towards the smaller bun, resolving to staunchly ignore how obviously intimidated she was.

“Oh, um. I just wanted to thank you for, um. F-for earlier. With the cards. And, um. And stuff.” It took far longer for Viola to say than it by all rights should have. She stuttered and stammered and fiddled with her ears and stared at her feet. She seemed to shrink into her hoodie, which wasn’t helped by the fact that it was at least a size too big for her. Ursula was fairly sure that was the only outfit the kid even _owned_. Her mind conjured an image of a massive wardrobe, containing only dark grey hoodies with a cartoon magician hat logo and green sweatpants that were probably also meant to be loose-fitting but struggled against Viola’s generous hippage.

Ursula was a fan of Viola’s generous hippage, though she wasn’t quite confident enough to _say_ so.

“Ah, hey, it’s no big deal. I was the one who knocked ‘em over anyway.”

“You didn’t _mean_ to. You were just upset. We all were.”

“Yeah, but I still shoulda been more careful. You didn’t lose any, did you?”

“No, they’re all accounted for. Four suits of thirteen plus both jokers. I double checked, just to be sure.”

“All of ‘em? That’s, uh, a lot of cards to count.”

“It’s only fifty four.” Viola frowned slightly, still pointedly not making eye contact. “It’s important.”

Ursula nodded. She’d never really understood the whole card thing. If she was honest, which she would _absolutely never do out loud_ , it was kinda weird. Creepy pre-splice rituals that she insisted weren’t _real_ magic but also refused to explain. That, plus her distinctive harlequin fur pattern and imaginary friend had played a big part in making her such a bully magnet. The imaginary friend had, at least, gone away _eventually_ – probably due to the threat of some time in the brain bullet. But, well, as cool as Viola’s card tricks were, they were _weird_. And Ursula _got_ that they were some kind of weird coping mechanism. Viola was a sweetheart, really, and she didn’t have the heart to deny her her hobby.

But, well, she couldn’t help but be a little resentful that Viola seemed steadfastly uninterested in putting any effort into avoiding getting bullied. Erin’s exploitation of their relationship was so obvious that it was easy to forget sometimes that Viola wasn’t entirely innocent in that regard. But at the same time she knew that it wasn’t really Viola’s _fault,_ and so that resentment made her feel profoundly guilty.

Ursula realized that they’d been standing in silence for an uncomfortable period of time. “Uh, come on. Let’s go sit down. I could use a bit of a break, anyway.” She switched off her inertial dampener and shrugged it off, carrying it over to the bleachers while Viola awkwardly followed.

“So, uh, seriously. Sorry about earlier.”

“Can we please not talk about it?”

Ursula sighed. “Like... I get not wanting to talk about it, really. But as much of a bitch as she is, Erin’s not wrong. We can’t put off dealing with this forever.”

Viola cringed, and Ursula immediately felt guilty. “Sorry. I know it’s not really very helpful to just ignore it, but I don’t really know what else to do.”

“We can’t keep sweeping it under the rug forever.”

“I just... Wish things could go back to how they were.”

Ursula shrugged. “Maybe they can? Like, who knows, maybe Dr. Baas’s weird community service thing will actually work. Who fucking knows, you know?”

“It’s just... really hard to deal with.”

“We can’t keep ignoring it.”

“I _know_ , and I’m _trying_ my best, but-”

“Could’a fooled me.” Immediately as the words left her mouth, Ursula regretted them. “... Sorry.”

But it was too late. “I should really get going. It’s my free period, but I’ve got some homework I should be doing.”

Viola got up and left before Ursula had a chance to stop her. Not that it would have helped much – she wasn’t really enthused with the probability of making things _worse_. She just sat there sadly, watching her packmate leave.

“... god dammit,” she muttered. She rose to her feet slowly, her muscles still sore from her earlier workout. Resolutely, she picked up her inertial dampener and slid it back on, the straps nestling comfortably over the straps of her sports bra. It was a little archaic, and she knew it didn’t _actually_ offer more support than a normal tank top. But it _felt_ like it did, and she found that made a difference when working out as intensely as she intended to.

Because _lord fucking knows_ she needed some stress relief.

~~~~~~

Vienna intended to keep her head down as she travelled to chemistry. She wasn’t normally particularly invested in keeping a low profile, but. Well. Today wasn’t a day when she particularly wanted to get involved in any _more_ conflict.

“So I heard you got in _trouble_.”

But, of course, it was never that easy. “Fuck _off_ , Vicky.”

“ _Excuse you_ , I haven’t even _done_ anything yet. And it’s Victoria to you. Only my friends get to call my Vicky.”

“Vicky you don’t _have_ any friends.” Vienna had known Vicky for their entire lives. The same applied to most of the student body, really. Esterwood wasn’t a very large dome, and it only had the one educational facility. There were still enough kids, though, that most of them blended into the background except for the ones who made themselves memorable. And Vicky was one of those.

She was, to put things poetically, a bitch in sheep’s clothing. It was also a fairly apt _literal_ description of her, in that she was a sheep and also a huge bitch.

“Wow, that was entirely uncalled for. I am _shocked_ at this unprompted venom.”

Vienna pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look, can we please just skip this? _Please_?”

“Ugh, _fine_. If you’re not gonna be any _fun_ about it then there’s no _point_.” Vicky slumped. “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. At _least_ give me something to work with.”

“No.”

“Pffft, fine. Killjoy.”

Vienna groaned. “If you want a reaction out of me you’re gonna have to come up with better material.”

“Look, they can’t all be gems. Besides, it’s not _my_ fault you’re so dull.”

“Excuse me?”

“I think I’m literally the only person in school who even knows your name. You don’t exactly stand out.”

Vicky wasn’t exactly the worst bully in the world. She wasn’t even really much of a bully – like Erin, she just seemed to have a bit of an abrasive personality. But every now and then she seemed to succeed at hitting a nerve. “I stand out _plenty_.”

“ _Please_. Viola does creepy occult shit and talks to mirrors. Ursula could bench press a small building and goes around beating people up for fun. Erin is a _six foot tall mouse_ with tits the size of her head. What are you? A low-rent version of Viola with a marginally better fashion sense, at _best_.”

Vienna stopped. Her body shook, not with fear but with something else. Something between indignation, rage, and the quiet realization that Vicky wasn’t entirely _wrong_.

“What was that about needing better material?”

“Okay. Fine. You fucking win. I’m reacting. Look at me, I’m rising to the bait. Fuckin’ _whee_.”

“Oh come on, you can do better than that.” She sighed, shaking her head in exaggerated disappointment. “You know what, though,” she said, smirking slightly and opening a single eye to look down at Vienna. “If you’re so hung up on standing out, the offer’s still on the table.”

“ _What_ offer?” Vienna asked, already knowing the answer. She found that playing along with Vicky’s antics tended to make her more likely to leave you alone sooner.

“Ditch your loser friends and join _my_ pack.”

“ _God_. What pack?! _No one can stand you_.”

It was Vicky’s turn to get defensive. “Hey, I’ve got a pack.”

“Yeah, right. Let me guess, they all live in other domes or something? Because I genuinely can’t think of anything resembling a pack you might be a part of.”

Vicky clicked her tongue in irritation. “Look, you’ve got potential. You’re _almost_ a normal person, the only problem is you hang out with a buncha freaks.” Vienna winced at the word, and Vicky seemed to take pause at that. “... Weirdos. You know, social outcasts? So, like, that’s the offer. Let them fend for themselves and hang out with normal people. You’ve still got that chance.”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m _trying_ to help you here, you know? At least show some gratitude.”

“ _Fuck you,_ ” Vienna replied forcefully, jabbing Vicky in a boob to emphasize her point. “I’m not just throwing Viola to the wolves because she’s weird, okay? And I’m not abandoning my friends, either.”

“That’s fair, I guess. But I was under the impression you all weren’t friends. You don’t do the best job of hiding the fact you hate each other, you know.”

“... I’m not abandoning my sister.”

That, again, seemed to give Vicky pause. “... Fine. Offer’s still on the table, but I won’t push the issue.” She turned and gave Vienna a dismissive wave goodbye. “Tell the f- the weirdos I said hi.”

“Fuck you,” Vienna replied as Vicky’s wave morphed into a middle finger. So much for avoiding conflict. But at least it was only Vicky. There were far worse people she could imagine having bumped into – like Ursula, or Erin, to name a few.

“... I wanna go home,” she muttered to herself as she resumed the arduous trek to chemistry.

It was going to be a long fucking day.

~~~~~~

Being the primary authority figure for _every single student_ in Esterwood’s solitary educational facility was something of a heavy burden. Dr. Baas liked to imagine she did the best possible job she could, given the circumstances, but it wasn’t _reasonable_ to expect her to perfectly deal with every child’s issues. She was, at least, not completely on her own in that regard. The school had about as robust a faculty as was possible given the limited pool of potential teachers it had to pull from. They all did a fantastic job, given the situation. But, at the end of the day they were _all_ people who, for whatever reason, wouldn’t or _couldn’t_ get teaching jobs at bigger, better schools in bigger, better domes. Especially her.

She tried not to think about that, to do her best to prepare the children under her care for the adult world. But there was always that lingering fear that she wasn’t good enough. Especially whenever there was _conflict_. She was good at dealing with the logistical side of the equation. When it came to _running the school_ , she was competent and efficient. But no one in Esterwood wore just one hat. There simply weren’t enough people. And while she would be the first to admit that she was underqualified to act as a guidance counsellor, she had ended up saddled with that job. She remained staunchly determined to do her best, and in most aspects that was enough. She was good at helping students decide what they wanted to do with their lives, on what classes to take, on how to deal with a heavy course load and how to balance their personal and academic lives.

Where she began to struggle was dealing with interpersonal conflict. It was, thankfully, quite rare – Esterwood was a very tight knit community, and most people were perfectly capable of dealing with their issues with each other on their own by the time their conflicts became more complex than not having figured out the concept of sharing just yet. But there would always be students who didn’t fit in to the community. Outsiders, black sheep., _misfits_. People like Lars Nilsen, or Victoria Ares. Or, most relevantly, Ursula Eckstein, Erin Leroux, and the Coniglio twins. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t help them. Sometimes it felt like she just made things worse.

“Dan, am I bad at my job?”

“Mary, I came in the door ‘bout five seconds ago. Can we maybe say ‘howdy’ first?”

“Sorry, you caught me in the middle of an existential crisis.”

“You’re not bad at your job, Mary,” Dan said with weary reassurance. “Though I _do_ wanna have words with you, as a parent.” He took a seat across the desk from her and gave her a Glare.

“Ugh, you know I’m no good at dealing with parents.”

“How about we talk as friends, then?”

“That’s slightly better.” Mary pulled herself upright, un-burying her head from her hands. “Look, I-”

“It’s _fine_ , Mary. You need to stop second-guessing yourself. I’m a bit annoyed, but I gotta admit Lula could use some character buildin’.”

“I know, I _know_ , but...” she sighed, drooping back into her chair. “It just seems a bit _much_ , you know?”

“We all knew we needed to do somethin’.”

“Yeah, but I still can’t help but feel like that one teacher who transparently doesn’t like a student and treats them unfairly.”

Dan took a moment to respond, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Well, _do_ you?”

“Do I what?”

“Not like the girls?”

“What? No! Of course not!”

“Well, there you go.” He smiled and nodded.

“That doesn’t make me feel much better, Dan.”

“Listen, people don’t like gettin’ told off, no matter what. If y’think you’re bein’ too strict, tone it down a little next time, maybe take back the threat ‘a suspension. But you still gotta punish the people who need punishing. And, much as I hate to admit that my girl’s been causin’ problems, havin’ big public shouting matches every other day ain’t somethin’ you can just let slide.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Always am.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Alright, if you’re so smart, what should I do next?”

“Well, speakin’ as a teacher, I’d say stick to your guns for now. The girls could use a bit of hard work to put things in perspective ‘n teach ‘em to cooperate.”

“God, I can’t believe I’m having to be talked into going through with something that was _my_ idea in the first place.”

“And, speakin’ as a _parent_ , maybe take the opportunity to talk to ‘em and actually figure out what the _problem_ is before tryin’ to fix it.”

Mary winced. “Okay, point taken. I _might_ have rushed things a bit.”

Dan opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when the door to the office opened. “Oh, is this a bad time?” The two turned to look at the tall giraffe woman, poking her head in slightly. Lisa Rothschild was a very, very large woman. Tall and wide, she had something of a commanding presence by virtue of being huge. Which made the way she sheepishly leaned into the room somewhat funny. Mary stifled a giggle, and Dan nodded, pulling himself to his feet.

“Nah, I was just about to leave.”

“Okay! I just wanted to run over the budget for new chemistry equipment again real quick before class.”

“Y’all talk about that, I should get back to _my_ class, make sure none of ‘em have set the school on fire.”

Mary nodded as Dan left and Lisa entered. Dan _was_ right. The best thing to do for now was to stick with her guns while she figured out a real, permanent solution. “There’s not a _huge_ amount of wiggle room in the budget, but I _think_ we can shuffle a few things around and make some room if we get creative,” she said, putting everything else out of her mind.

This was her _element_.

~~~~~~

Viola had lied, a little bit. It _was_ her free period, and she _did_ have homework to do. But she had not left to do it. Which, really, was probably obvious. She doubted that Ursula didn’t _know_ she’d been looking for an excuse to leave. But, well, she didn’t want to _say_ it. It was just _awkward_ and she couldn’t _stand_ it.

She had _not_ left because of what Ursula said, though it still stung. Not because she was wrong, but because she was _right_ and Viola didn’t particularly want to admit it. When she really sat down and _thought_ about it, asked herself if she really _was_ trying her best, the answer was no. Not for a lack of willingness, of course. She just didn’t know what to do. Was at a complete and utter loss. Can’t try if you don’t know what you’re trying. No real fault of hers, but that didn’t stop her from blaming herself.

But again, that was not why she had left.

“Oral code: 8643. Sensitivity profile ‘Stress Relief’.”

It was a bad habit Viola had developed a long time ago, and had never really managed to shake. It all came back to Vienna, really. Where most teens had a healthy interest in the opposite sex, the same sex, and sex just sort of in general, Vienna pointedly didn’t. It wasn’t something any of them judged her for too harshly. She was, after all, hardly the only person in the world who was uninterested in OC. _That_ wasn’t a problem. The emphatic degree to which she was reluctant was _unusual_ for someone who ostensibly just had a low sex-drive, but there was nothing wrong with not wanting sex in and of itself. Vienna had her reasons, and Viola knew them and respected them.

The problem, at least from Viola’s point of view, was that _Viola_ didn’t have a low sex-drive. In fact, just the opposite. Which was why she was in the bathroom, in a locked stall, masturbating in the middle of the school day. Her breath came quickly and heavily as she tried her best not to make too much noise. She could, she supposed, always ask Erin or Ursula to help her with this particular problem. But, well, disregarding the fact that it was _probably_ too late for that to be an option on the table, it felt _weird_ to have OC when Vienna wouldn’t. So she didn’t and she hated it.

“Ah-ah- _ahnnnnn fuck~_ ” she groaned as she finished. The itch hadn’t been scratched, but it had been... dealt with. For the time being at least. It would come back, she knew it would, but _hopefully_ she’d held it off until she got home, where she could afford to be a bit more thorough. _Most_ of the time she was capable of holding out for the course of the school day, but then again most of the time she didn’t end up encountering Ursula wearing _very skimpy_ workout clothing and in the middle of an intense workout. The way her muscles rippled as she punched was enchanting. And then she’d gotten close and _oh god she was sweaty and still wearing very little clothing._ Viola had taken the first excuse to leave, before she broke down right in the middle of the damn gym.

She slumped back against the wall as her muscles gave out, just barely supported enough to not slide off the toilet. She took a moment to calm down, her breathing slowly returning to a normal pace. God, why did she _do_ this to herself? This wasn’t a _problem_ , except that she _made_ it one. She was hardly the only person in the world with an overactive libido, but anyone else would solve the problem with lots and lots of casual sex with their friends and the occasional attractive and consenting stranger.

But Viola’s pack weren’t an _option_ , and-

Well, there weren’t many who fit all three categories in Esterwood. For reasons that were mostly entirely Viola’s fault. She had a... reputation, and not an entirely undeserved one. For a variety of reasons that she didn’t particularly want to think about, so instead she worked up the energy to get up, and after a moment to steady her still somewhat shaky legs, unlocked the stall and left.

And then promptly froze.

In other circumstances, Lars Nilsen would probably have gravitated towards Ursula for the same reasons Viola and Erin had. He was very lanky, unathletic. Like Viola, he wasn’t really capable of defending himself against anyone who decided to turn to physical violence. And, also like Viola, he was a bit of a weirdo. He went a bit more all-in on the aesthetic, though. He had died his fur bone-white, and his mane jet-black with a few bright red streaks, and his wardrobe consisted almost entirely of those same colours. Big, heavy black boots with lots of straps. Tight-fitting black fishnet leggings, over which he wore a slightly translucent black skirt. A black vest with white horizontal stripes that were probably intentionally reminiscent of a ribcage worn over a sleeveless red dress shirt, with black leather arm coverings. He was currently looking in the mirror, touching up his heavy black eyeliner.

Viola briefly considered ducking back into the bathroom stall until he left. That plan evaporated into nothing when he made eye contact with her in the mirror and glowered sullenly. “Viola.”

“Um, h-hi, Lars. I was just-”

“Don’t care,” he snapped. “Heard what happened. It’s your fault, you know.”

“Huh?”

Lars turned around dramatically (he had always had a flair for the dramatic) and strode over to where she stood in a few long steps. “You heard me.”

“I, uh, I don’t...” Viola found herself trailing off as she gazed up at the larger boy. With how slender his build was, it was easy to forget that he was very slightly taller than even Ursula. That he was a _lion_. In the wild, they were apex predators. That didn’t apply to humans, of course, but Lars was still deceptively large and intimidating when he wanted to be. Especially factoring in that Viola was _not_ large – she just barely came up to the middle of his chest.

Lars _loomed_. “I try to warn you. But you just don’t _listen_. You keep messing with forces you don’t understand, and then you act surprised when they bite back.”

“I, um. Th-they’re just-”

“Just _what?_ Tricks?” Lars frowned deeply. “Yeah, sure. Whatever. But if they’re really fake then it’d prolly be real fucking easy to prove me wrong.”

“Th-that’s not... You’re not _supposed_ to, that’s not the _point_.”

“Yeah sure that’s real fucking convenient,” Lars spat. “You can claim it’s fake all you want, but who’s more credible. Some high school kid or well documented historical fact?”

“It’s not historical fact!” It was Viola’s turn to snap. “It’s just a bunch of stuff people made up in the Neo-Victorian age to sell cards! _Magic isn’t real!_ ”

“Tell that to the ancient shamans who created the art. Houdini would probably laugh in your face and then curse you and all your descendants.”

“No he wouldn’t!That probably wasn’t even his real name!”

“Maybe consider reading a _book_ at some point.”

“Maybe _you_ should do that, and you’d realize that most of those so-called shamans dedicated their lives to proving that people who claimed magic is real were just _frauds_ trying to take people’s money!”

Lars slammed a hand into the stall, directly to the right of Viola’s head – and pointedly directly between her and the exit of the bathroom. “Give me your cards.”

“W-what?” Viola quivered slightly at the tactile reminder that in spite of being a wimp, Lars was much taller than she was.

“You don’t deserve them. You clearly don’t care about the consequences or how you might hurt people around you so you _don’t deserve them_. Now _give them to me!_ ”

Viola shrank against the door of the stall, pulling her arms tightly against her body in a sort of mime hug. She slipped one of her hands into the pocket of her hoodie and grabbed tightly onto her deck. “N-no.They’re mine. You can’t have them.”

“Fine, then I’ll just take them by force.”

Lars lunged forward, grabbing at Viola – and then, with a lurch, his face slammed directly into the stall door. Hard. He staggered backwards in a daze from the impact, pulled along by Erin, who was holding him by the back of his head. “Don’t you _fucking dare,_ ” she hissed, tossing him away from Viola. He clutched his nose, a thin trail of blood running down his face.

“Fuck off, Leroux. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Oh, it doesn’t? Well, why don’t we go tell Ursula exactly what it was that you were doing. Though I doubt we’ll need to. I may not be as strong as her, but I believe I am more than a match for you.”

“Fuck you.”

“ _Leave_ , Lars. _Now_.”

Lars growled, his tail twitching back and forth violently. “... Fine. But whatever happens to you from now on is on _your_ head.” With that, he turned and stormed out of the bathroom.

Erin let loose a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. “Oh thank _god_ ,” she muttered – all bravado aside, she was uncertain that she could actually take Lars in a fistfight. She turned to focus on Viola, who had curled up into a fetal position and was sobbing gently.

Erin crouched down and gently stroked her head. “Shhhhhhh, it’s alright. He’s gone now. He won’t hurt you, I promise.” She slowly pulled Viola into a hug, and let the smaller girl gently sob into her shoulder for however long she needed.

It turned out that Viola didn’t need particularly long. “... Thanks.”

“I... Just happened to be in the area. That’s all.” Erin shuffled awkwardly after they both returned to their feet. “I, um. Heard you shouting, and I was worried.”

“You didn’t have to help.”

“Yes, well...” Erin sighed. “Look. My grievances are with Ursula and with your sister. Not with you. We may be dysfunctional, but we’re still a pack. And packmates should stand up for each other.”

“Yes, well. Thanks all the same.” The conversation once again dried up. “... Could, um. Could I maybe get a little bit of time alone? I need to think.”

Erin gently placed a hand on Viola’s shoulder. “Oh, darling, I can understand that you might want some time to recover after being menaced by that brute. But I need to pee.”

“... Oh.”

“That’s kind of _why_ I just happened to be in the area.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be out of your hair!”

Erin quickly stepped around Viola and into the now vacant stall, closing the door and locking it behind her. Viola fidgeted slightly as she waited for Erin to finish her business, before deciding not to wait. She walked up to the sink and turned it on, cupping her hands beneath it and then splashing the gathered water on her face to wash away the remains of her tears.

She looked up and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Most of the obvious signs that she had been crying again had been washed away, though her eyes were still slightly bloodshot. “... What am I doing wrong?” she muttered to herself.

“I’m not going to be much help in that regard,” her reflection replied. “Besides which, I thought you promised not to talk to me anymore?”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, I just... need someone to talk to, I guess.”

Her reflection had taken on a different appearance. The same shape, outlined with a deep green and filed in with a translucent, shimmering blue. Like a pair of mirrors placed next to each other. “Viola...”

“Look, I know, okay? People are going to think I’m crazy. But you know what, people already think I’m crazy. And maybe they’re right because it’s been years and yet here you are, the very minute I want to talk to you.” She slumped forward slightly. “Maybe some time in the bullet would do me some good.”

“You know you don’t believe that.” She sighed. “If you want, we can talk more later. At _home_ , in private.”

“... Yeah. Yeah, okay.” She smiled weakly. “I’ll see you then, Aubrey.”

“Likewise. Now, you still have homework to do, so you should go do that!”

“Yeah, yeah, okay. Fine. Mom would kill me if I didn’t finish it anyway.” With that, her reflection returned to normal, and she turned and left.

A few moments later, Erin emerged from her stall and sighed wearily. “Oh, Viola,” she muttered. She _worried_ about the girl, and this only served to make her worry _more_. She’d thought Viola had _stopped_ with that Aubrey Kadabra nonsense. Not only did that appear to not be the case, it almost seemed like it was worse. After all, though Erin had never actually directly encountered Viola and Aubrey speaking back when she did so on a regular basis, she had been thoroughly informed of the nature of their conversations. And no one had ever mentioned the mirror talking _back_. Clearly Viola had started actually filling in the other half of the conversation.

It was worrying, but what was more worrying was the prospect of Viola being taken away. Erin nodded, filled with a newfound resolve. She would keep Viola’s secret for her, at least for now, and confront her over it later. Her decision made, she quickly washed her hands and left.

And, unbeknownst to her, her own reflection lingered behind. Just for a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh right, this site exists. I'm going to try and actually upload some stuff here – there's some specific issues i have with the site's formatting that are like pulling teeth, but on the other hand it's more accessible than Inkbunny, more reader-friendly than FA, and less limiting in terms of subject matter than Fimfiction. This particular story is already almost done, so expect a lot of it in the next few weeks (or you could just go to inkbunny/fa and read it all now :v)


	2. Act Two - I'm Okay, Trust Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the school day comes to a close, Viola and her pack go their separate ways. Live their little lives, dream their little dreams, suffering in silence. Taking solace in what little comfort is available to them.
> 
> But there is something looming on the horizon. A disaster unlike anything they have experienced before.
> 
> And things are only going to get worse for them from here.

Erin was having a hard time paying attention in class. It wasn’t that she was uninterested. It just felt so _pointless,_ given that apparently she was no longer going to be taking Pre-Splice Literature 102 anymore as of tomorrow. Besides which, she had a lot on her mind. Bits and pieces of the lecture floated their way into her consciousness, but for the most part she found herself focused on her more pressing issues.

There was the punishment, of course. She was not relishing whatever it was that Dr. Baas had planned for them, and she _certainly_ wasn’t relishing the inevitable fights as she and Ursula and Vienna were forced to – she shuddered – _cooperate_. And then there was what she had witnessed in the bathroom. It had been almost a full school day, and she still couldn’t quite get it out of her mind. She wasn’t entirely sure why her mind was so focused on it, really. It felt beyond merely empathizing with Viola’s plight, the risk of being taken away and put into a metal box until she stopped being crazy. Maybe she was just vicariously afraid of the same happening to her. Maybe she just didn’t relish the idea of never getting to stare at those delightfully wide hips again. Whatever it was, it kept the concept firmly in her mind no matter how she tried to not think about it, and-

“Erin, since you seem to be paying _rapt_ attention right now, you can have the honour of reading the story to the class. All six thousand seven hundred words of it.”

Erin jerked slightly, rudely torn from her reverie. “Ah, um. Yes, sorry.” She had, at least, brought up the story they were going to be covering in advance, and since she was reading the whole thing she didn’t have to worry about figuring out where they were. “Um. _‘Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette...’_ ”

Erin read the way every high school student throughout human history read when called to do so out loud. Dry and soft-spoken and awkward. It didn’t matter how gripping the story might be. Any enthusiasm one might have for literature completely fades into the background when made to read it out loud in front of a classroom full of peers, unless you’re a theatre kid. Erin was not a theatre kid, and so she merely recited the words. “ _‘AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet... AM has won, simply... he has taken his revenge... I have no mouth. And I must scream.’_ ”

“What do you think?” Mrs. Eckstein was sitting on the edge of her desk, smiling that almost smug smile that seemed to be her default facial expression.

“It was very... vivid,” Erin replied.

“It’s a notoriously uncomfortable read. Terrible, terrible things happening to ordinary people, orchestrated by a mad god of their own creation.”

“Well, not really.” Erin frowned slightly. “The author doesn’t really go into detail about who the characters were before AM got its hands on them, but I don’t get the impression that any of them were involved in its creation.”

“An interesting point! One that makes the situation all the crueller. Humanity as a whole did not create AM, but Humanity as a whole suffers because of that creation. The five main characters seem chosen almost at random, condemned to suffer an eternity of torment for the crime of existing at the wrong place and time.”

“It all seems almost needlessly cruel.”

“Think of it as a metaphor. Given the state the world was in at the time, the author almost certainly felt that _reality_ was similarly cruel.”

Erin relished the distraction from her own troubles, diving headfirst into analyzing the story, back and forth with Mrs. Eckstein. Less a class and more a one-on-one conversation, with the rest of the students halfheartedly taking notes until the period was over.

“That will be all for today, class. Next time we’ll be moving forward into the latter half of the twentieth century to lighten the mood a bit by taking a look at Star Wars. Make sure to _actually watch the movie_ before class this time, everyone. I don’t want a repeat of 2001. Erin, if you could stay after class for a moment, I’d like to have a few words with you.”

“Hm? Um, okay.” It wasn’t like Erin had anywhere in particular to go, but she couldn’t really fathom why Mrs. Eckstein might want to speak with her. The other students filed out eagerly, quickly leaving the two alone. “Um, so-”

“I spoke with Mary about your current situation and we agreed that removing you from this course _entirely_ is a bit much. You’ll still be spending the final period of every day doing community service, of course. Punishment is punishment. But in the meantime, you’ll still be taking Pre-Splice Literature 102. Just on your own time, which is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh.” This caught Erin somewhat off guard, but wasn’t an unwelcome development. “Um, thank you, Mrs. Eckstein.”

“Azalea, please. We’re not in class and you’re my daughter’s girlfriend, there’s no need for formalities.”

“I’m her packmate, not her girlfriend.”

Azalea shrugged, hopping off of her desk. “Essentially the same thing, kid.” Erin suppressed a groan as the bat walked over to her desk and sat on top of it, turning her body to face her. “Let’s not argue over semantics. We’ve got more important things to talk about right now.”

Erin often found herself wondering exactly what, if anything, Ursula had gotten from her mother. Certainly not her size – Azalea was decidedly a shortstack, smaller than even the twins. And certainly not her _temperament_ , or her _intelligence_ (or lack thereof). Both the bat and the dane were very even tempered, almost laid back. And Azalea in particular had a seemingly bottomless confidence in every situation. A far cry from Ursula’s short fuse and violent tendencies. Perhaps she had inherited those from one of her other parents. There were a total of five people in the Eckstein pack, though Erin only really personally knew of the two who taught at Esterwood High.

“You’re probably gonna hafta give up a big chunk of your weekends, if we wanna cram a full week’s worth of lessons into whatever free time you’ve got and still leave you with time for other classes and sleep and such.”

“That’s fine. I would rather give up my weekend than risk not getting into college.”

“Locksmouth, right? I’ve sent off my letter of recommendation, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“You sure you wanna go there, though?”

Erin sighed. “ _Yes_ , I am sure.”

“It’s quite a ways away from home.”

“Esterwood is not my home,” Erin replied tersely. “Besides which, it’s only about an hour away by trans. Honestly if anything it’s a bit _too_ close for my tastes, but it’s where my parents work so it’s convenient enough.”

“Well, if you’re sure. Just try not to rush into a decision for the wrong reasons.”

“I have to go _somewhere_.”

“Yes, but it’s still important to not go there for the wrong reasons. Anyway, I’m going to transfer a tentative schedule to your PET. Let me know if there’s any conflicts.”

Erin sighed but was content to drop the subject for now. “I will, thank you.”

“Hey, no problem. So! Homework! You’re gonna have more to do ‘cause you’ve only got one class a week. For now, catch up on all three of the original Star Wars movies, Terminator one and two, and Star Trek six. Now you should get going, I’ve got teacher stuff to do and you’ve probably got student stuff to do.”

Erin was more than willing to take the chance to leave. The conversation had gotten decidedly awkward. She stood up and left the classroom without a further word.

~~~~~~

Victoria Marie Ares had no friends. She didn’t particularly like to admit it, but it was true. She would not go so far as to say that everyone _hated_ her. In fact, she was fairly popular. She was a very physically attractive person, was at least decent at most sports, got fairly good grades, and was the captain of the school’s modest cheerleading squad. It was only natural that she had a fairly large cadre of mostly indistinguishable hangers-on. But, well, that was kind of the problem. She had “friends” but she didn’t have any _friends_. Being a mean girl was hard, thankless work, but someone had to do it.

Well okay no that was a lie there was absolutely no reason for her to be a mean girl aside from having the social skills of a lemon. But she was eighteen and she’d been a mean girl for her whole life so what was the point of changing? It was easier to just stick to her brand. She had a circle of people who mostly tolerated her presence, and that was good enough for her. Certainly easier to maintain than a proper pack. She didn’t even really know any of their names. Out loud she could get away with pronouns, and in her head she just called them all Heather.

Of course the problem arose when you realized that all of Vicky’s friends were insufferable, shallow, vapid, unpleasant _bitches_. Honestly, it was weirdly impressive that the school _had_ so many fellow mean girls for Vicky to associate with given the town’s population was so small. But they existed and they were all awful. Every time she was together with one or more of them, they would spend most of the time shit-talking the ones who weren’t there. She could only assume the same was true when she wasn’t there, though the thing about people talking behind your back is you can’t be _certain_ it’s happening unless they’re really bad at the behind your back part.

The mild hypocrisy of complaining about the Heathers behind their backs, even just to herself, was not lost on Vicky. She knew that it wasn’t something people were supposed to do. It was, well, _mean_. Everything about her social circle was _mean_ and she knew it and she wanted to stop but she didn’t really know _how_.

Which, she supposed, explained her fascination with Vienna. She was a very physically attractive person, was at least decent at most sports, got fairly good grades, and while she wasn’t the _captain_ of the cheerleading squad she probably _could_ have been if she wanted to be. But she _wasn’t_. And she _didn’t_ have a squad of Heathers, unless you counted Erin. Which, really, Vicky didn’t. Say what you will about the Heathers, but they were at least better at dealing with people than Erin. Vienna had the life that Vicky had secretly desired for _ages_. All of the positives, none of the venom. Shit, she even had real friends. They _hated_ each other, but at least they were fucking _honest_ about it.

They still hated each other, though. That was another thing. Vicky saw so much of herself in Vienna and, in a weird sort of way, wanted her to be happy. She deserved happiness. She _had_ to, because if she didn’t then neither did Vicky.

And, well, they’d _both_ probably be happiest if they ditched their loser friends.

That was realistically never going to happen, though. Not for lack of trying on Vicky’s part, but Vienna was _stubbornly_ attached to this group of people who made her miserable. Probably because of her sister. They were a package deal – if you wanted Vienna, you had to take Viola as well. And unfortunately, Viola was frumpy, spent most of gym class on the sidelines, got average grades at best, and spent most of her free time doing weird occult shit. Vicky had approximately zero interest in finding common ground with Viola, and Vienna wasn’t going to leave her twin for any reason even if it was clearly and obviously the best course of action for everyone involved.

But, well. Vicky couldn’t really blame her on that front.

Esterwood was, as established, not particularly large. Even taking into account that the vast majority of cities had far more city than they had people, Esterwood’s population was _tiny_. The practical upshot was that the elementary school and the high school were the same building. There weren’t enough students or faculty to justify dedicating two separate facilities to education. The building was divided cleanly in half – one side was for grades one through six, the other for grades seven through twelve. Vicky currently found herself in the former half of the school, wading her way through the sparse crowds of anklebiters in search of a very specific anklebiter.

“Vicky!”

You would think that by now Vicky would have gotten used to getting tacklehugged out of nowhere, considering it happened every single school day. “Oof!” But no, it still never failed to surprise her. In spite of how small the one doing the tackling was, she still had enough mass to knock the unsuspecting Vicky onto her face. “Hi, Sophie.”

Sophia Elizabeth Ares had much in common with her sister, with the key difference that Sophie actually had a collection of real friends. Vicky felt bad to admit that she didn’t really know any of them by name. It wasn’t really _unusual_ , nor was it her fault. There wasn’t much overlap between their social circles and frankly Vicky was intent on keeping it that way. Not that she wasn’t interested in her baby sister’s friends, but she _certainly_ didn’t want her own bad habits rubbing off on the kid.

“We learned about planets! Oh, oh, and we’re gonna be starting with algebra this year! And-and-and we did all of Russian class in Russian and I only sort of got lost! And we’re gonna read _another_ chapter book and this one’s pre-splice!” Sophie had been very excited when she was made to read her first chapter book for school, and had never _quite_ gotten over the novelty. She continued rattling on and on about the minutiae of her day while Vicky struggled to pull herself upright. The task was made more difficult by the fact that Sophie had a stranglehold on her midsection from behind and didn’t seem all that keen on letting go.

“That’s all very nice but I can’t breathe,” Vicky said, which Sophie seemed mostly content to ignore. The other elementary school children milled around them like a river parting around a particularly large rock, but _eventually_ Vicky managed to stand up and pry Sophie off of her. “C’mon, kiddo. We can talk more on the way home.”

“How was your day?”

“It was fine.” The difference was stark. A tragic but inevitable casualty of her teenage years. Even the best educational system couldn’t hope to stand up to the ravages puberty performed on a child’s enthusiasm for talking about how their day went.

“Come on, I wanna know what you did!”

“We did stuff. I dunno.” Vicky shrugged. “I’ve got a ton of homework and you’ve probably got some too, so we need to get you home.”

“Awww, fine.” It was almost surreal how Sophie was ten years old and still remained as excited about school as she was.

“Tell you what, once you finish your homework I’ll take you out to the arcade and then we can grab some pizza for dinner.”

 _That_ got Sophie’s attention. “Pizza? Pizza! Are you sure we can have pizza for dinner? Pizza!”

“Mom and dad said that I’m in charge while they’re away. If I said so we could have Burger Dictator for every meal. So we’re havin’ pizza and that’s final.”

“Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!”

Vicky couldn’t help but smile, in spite of herself. Sophie’s enthusiasm for pizza was infectious. Sophie’s enthusiasm was infectious _in general_. Likely moreso for Vicky than it would have been for someone else. That was the nature of sibling bonds, she supposed. She certainly didn’t get along with Sophie _all_ the time – the kid could be a stubborn little brat when she wanted to be. But no matter how they might fight, Vicky could never bring herself to abandon her sister.

Vicky nodded to herself. “Right. Pizza it is. But remember that you’ve gotta do your homework first!” It was clear to Vicky now that Vienna felt the same way about Viola as she did about Sophie.

She might not have much interest in finding common ground with Viola. But, if she were in Vienna’s shoes, and someone was offering her a way out of her situation with the Heathers on the condition that she abandoned Sophie, well. She would be about as receptive of it as Vienna was being of her own olive branches. The solution was staring her in the face. Really, she was surprised she’d not noticed it sooner.

Right now, she had to deal with her sister, and she had her own homework to do. But tomorrow her first priority was to enact her new plan. Step one; befriend Viola Coniglio.

Vicky saw _absolutely_ no way that this could go wrong.

~~~~~~

Ursula came from a big family. She was an only child, but made up for it by having five parents. And each of those five had their own extended family to some degree or another. Azalea didn’t like to talk about her parents much, and Scarlet’s had passed away before Ursula was born. Leanne was a rabbit, though, and as a result Ursula had something like twenty aunts and uncles on that particular branch of the family tree (well okay no that was hyperbole but there were still a lot of them). Mindy and Dan had more reasonably sized families, but they were still enough that combined with Leanne’s extended family the house was packed like goddamn sardines.

It was, thusly, a somewhat surreal experience to come home to a house that was almost completely empty. Leanne worked as a biologist over in Locksmouth, and was currently away monitoring the local animals outside the dome. Scarlet had left with her, so she wouldn’t have to be alone in the wilderness. And Dan and Azalea were both still at school, doing teacher things. That left Mindy. Typically, she was _also_ out and about when Ursula got home, busy with some civic project or another. Considering how _stagnant_ Esterwood was, it was surprising just how busy the Arbitrators often found themselves. Today, at least, that didn’t seem to be the case. Ursula could hear Mindy humming to herself, puttering around the kitchen. Presumably she was preparing dinner, or something. Ursula didn’t really care. She was having a hard time caring about pretty much anything at the moment.

“Hi, honey! How was school?”

“The usual,” Ursula grunted in response, shrugging off her backpack, unceremoniously dumping it on the floor before flopping face-first onto the couch. “I hate everything and want to die.”

“I wish you wouldn’t joke about that kind of thing, dear,” Mindy said from the kitchen. The Eckstein house was very open concept in design, of course, so they might as well have been in the same room. There were very few places that Ursula could go within the confines of her house and expect to be left alone or even have any token privacy unless she was outright the only person in the house.

“Sorry. Just had kind of a bad day.”

“Mmm. I heard what happened.”

“ _Fuck_.”

“Language, dear.” Mindy put down whatever it was she was working on and came into the family room. “Are you going to be okay?”

“No.” Ursula pulled herself upright.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. Talking about it hasn’t really helped much so far.” Still, she scooted to the right so that her mother had room to sit down next to her. The poodle did so without needing to exchange words on the subject, and Ursula had to stifle a groan. “Mom could you maybe consider wearing clothing around the house?”

“I _have_ an apron on. And understickers, too.” It wasn’t exactly much of an apron, though. It was slightly undersized on her plush frame, and sitting down made it bend and contour in weird ways. “Besides, I should be allowed to go naked in my own house if I want.”

“Mom, _ew_.”

Mindy laughed, and gently tousled Ursula’s short hair. “Tell you what. I’ll go put some jeans on, but only if you promise to speak with me about what happened.”

“... I’ve got homework to do.” Ursula grabbed her backpack and stood up. “Call me when it’s dinner. Or whatever.”

“I’m not gonna force you to talk to me, dear.”

“Yeah.”

“But I wish you wouldn’t bottle things up.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not _healthy_ , dear.”

“ _Yeah, I get it,_ ” Ursula snapped. “Look, I know what you’re gonna say. You _all_ always say the exact same things, every time, and lemme tell you, the routine’s getting kinda tired.”

“Ursula, wai-” but she had already stormed off upstairs, presumably to her room. Mindy sighed. “... maybe I’m not very good at this,” she muttered to herself. It wasn’t that she was a bad parent, or at least she didn’t think so. It’s just that she was used to having four other people on hand to help her deal with Ursula, and currently none of them were at home.

She drifted to the kitchen, nervously fiddling with her ears. She _had_ to continue preparing dinner, but found her heart was no longer in it. She wasn’t sure why she was so _worried_ about this. It was hardly the first time Ursula and her pack had gotten into trouble, after all. But something felt _different_ this time. Mindy wasn’t sure exactly _why_ , but she had been on edge for the past few days.

There was a storm brewing. And she had a sinking feeling that it was going to hit sooner, rather than later.

~~~~~~

Erin slammed the door. Her parents would have yelled at her for it if they were home, but they were _away_ on business in Locksmouth. _Again_. So fuck it, she’d slam the door if she wanted. She stormed her way into her room, slamming that door shut too. There wasn’t really a _reason_ to slam it given that she was alone in the house, but again; _fuck it_. She needed some god damned catharsis at this point. She flopped face first onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. Kicking and screaming and crying like she was a goddamn two year old throwing a tantrum. Which, really, the only part of that that wasn’t true was that she was eighteen, not two.

Still, she _needed_ the release. She wasn’t entirely sure how long she spent pitching a fit, and frankly she didn’t really give a fuck. There was no one around to judge her and she needed a good cry. But inevitably she ran out of energy to keep crying. So she stopped. Lay face-down on her bed like a dead thing. Empty. _Tired_.

Things weren’t quite as bad as they could be, she supposed. She was, at least, still getting that Pre-Splice Lit 102 credit, for what it was worth. Which admittedly wasn’t much. And for all they were getting punished, it was ultimately just a slap on the wrist. And, well, that was it for the bright sides to the situation. Maybe there would be some miracle and this would repair her relationship with her pack, but she doubted it.

Erin slowly heaved herself up and off her bed, standing awkwardly in the middle of her bedroom. She needed to take her mind off of the situation. She needed to _relax_. She needed... well, she needed a lot of things that she wouldn’t be getting, really.

Well. There was _one_ thing that Erin could do to help herself. It was a small thing. She turned to face her closet, the door of which doubled as a full body mirror. It let her take a good, long look at herself. She was tall, six feet even, rail thin with breasts that were, if she was honest, enormous. She was a lot of mouse.

And every goddamn inch of it was a fucking _lie_.

Erin inhaled deeply. And then she let go.

~~~~~~

“Hey, I’m home.”

Upon opening the door, Vienna was hit with a wall of aroma. Like getting punched in the face with Italian food. “Heya, sport! Your mother’s been working on a nice Sunday Gravy all day and lemme tell you, it smells _great_.”

“That’s nice,” Vienna replied with a shrug. Their mother was _usually_ making _something_ hearty for dinner, usually with unreasonably large portions. She took a seat across from her father. “I could probably _use_ the carbs.”

“Yeah, the school called.” That was all that Vinnie Coniglio said on the subject. He’d always had a good sense for when his daughters didn’t want to talk about something, and was content to drop the subject.

“Unreasonable!” _Clara_ Coniglio, on the other hand, was not one to drop a subject when she was angry. “What did you do wrong? Get into an argument? That doesn’t warrant community service! They’re treating you like some kind of criminal!”

“Where’s Viola?” Vinnie interjected, giving Vienna a weary look that communicated the fact that he’d been dealing with this shit all day fairly well.

“I dunno, she kind of went off on her own after school.”

“Did she go into the Woods on her own? Again? Honestly, that girl of ours.”

Vinnie sighed, adjusting his glasses. “She’ll be fine, dear.”

“The Woods are dangerous! Why do you think they’re still _woods_ and not buildings!” Clara poked her head through the doorway to the kitchen, floppy brown ears swaying with the motions. The twins had _mostly_ taken after their mother, in that they were all rabbits while Vinnie was a horse. The big thing they inherited from their father was their colours – Clara was brown all over, while Vinnie had splotches of black and white. The twins’ fur was more of a neat black and white patchwork, like a checkerboard. The term was, apparently, harlequin magpie.

“It’ll be fine, dear. Viola goes into the Woods all the time and she’s not hurt herself yet.”

“I still don’t approve!” Clara snapped. After a brief moment of silence, she continued; “Vienna, make sure to call your sister and tell her to come home by dinner.”

“I will, mama.”

“Good!” Clara darted back into the kitchen, and the sounds of furious cooking erupted forth. Clara spent most of her time cooking. Most of Vienna’s memories of her mother took place in the kitchen, or in the backyard garden. The vast majority of their food was home grown, with almost every variety of vegetable and herb and meat imaginable _somewhere_ in their massive garden. It took a lot of work to maintain, but Clara had a lot of free time. Vinnie had a fairly lucrative job as an engineer over in Locksmouth, so the household’s income was more than enough.

“Ah, yeah, let her know that I’m gonna be gone for a few days while you’re at it.” Typically Vinnie would just take the train in the morning and evenings and that was enough, but every now and then he found himself needing to eliminate the commute time for whatever reason, and that meant staying overnight.

“I’ll let her know.” Vienna was only sort of aware of what her father did for a living, really. Not from a lack of interest, but because most of the details honestly completely flew over her head.

“And make sure to do your homework!” There was a loud _clang_ from some pot or pan or another getting dropped. “Fuck! And tell Viola to also make sure to do her homework!”

“Yes, mama.” Vienna pulled herself up off the couch.

“Aren’t you going to tell me how your day went?”

Vienna groaned slightly. “You already know how my day went,” she replied tersely.

“Fair, fair. Dinner’s in about an hour.”

“‘kay.” Vienna waved dismissively as she headed to her room. She tossed her backpack onto the floor beside her closet and then walked across the room and flopped backwards onto her bed. “ _Ugh_.” She buried her face in her hands as she tried and failed to not think about things.

She didn’t bother to call up Viola. She knew from experience that there wasn’t gonna be an answer if she did. The best thing to do was to let her work things out in her own time. Still, Vienna couldn’t help but worry. That was another thing she’d inherited from her mother – she _worried_. It was instinctive. Her mind kept wandering to the rumours that circulated around the Woods, no matter how she tried to keep her mind off of it.

“Fuck, maybe doing homework’ll help.” She sat up and grabbed her backpack, fishing around for some schoolwork to take her mind off of things.

It took her a moment, but she eventually stopped and looked over at where her backpack had been lying until just a moment ago. Across the room.

“... Fuck.”

~~~~~~

The Nilsen household was completely empty. It usually was, aside from Lars himself. His parents were almost constantly away, either on business or vacation (currently it was the latter). And, like most of Esterwood’s teens he was an only child.

But that was fine. Lars liked to be alone.

He didn’t bother to turn on the lights. He hated the cold, lifeless illumination of artificial light. Candlelight was better, in that regard. His parents wouldn’t let him use candles when they were around, but they were never around so fucking _whatever_. He lit some candles in the living room and pulled out his PET.

After a moment’s consideration, he flipped to the night’s reading material of choice; a biography of Houdini, written in the Neo-Victorian era. Not exactly a firsthand account, but Lars didn’t trust anything pre-splice. There was this _enormous_ gap of time that were completely and utterly blank. As far as he was concerned, anything anyone knew from _before_ that was suspect. How could they prove they weren’t just making shit up?

The _irony_ of trusting post-splice information about pre-splice figures more than pre-splice information about pre-splice figures was mostly lost on him. Or perhaps it wasn’t and he just didn’t give a fuck. The biography was, in actual fact, almost entirely fiction beyond the fact that a man who went by Harry Houdini did in fact exist. There were other real historical details, twisted to fit into the mystical narrative. That was what had sold during the period, and so that’s what the author had written.

People had always craved something to believe in. Certainly _Lars_ did. And, deep down, he knew that. But he also didn’t really care. Any feeble doubts he might have had, seeds planted by his conversation with Viola and germinated by his common sense, were forcefully pushed aside. _This_ was the truth. _This_ was real. Magic existed, and it had power.

It _had_ to.

~~~~~~

A significant portion of Esterwood was undeveloped forest. They called it the Woods District, or just the Woods. It was, ostensibly, a nature preserve. A little slice of outside within the safety of the dome. That was mostly an excuse, though. The real reason was the rumours.

Supposedly, the Woods was haunted. Viola, at least, had never actually experienced any evidence that the Woods was haunted. But the lack of evidence didn’t stop people from believing something so obviously wrong any more than basic common fucking sense stopped Lars from being as obviously wrong as he always was about everything ever.

The legend went, supposedly, that deep within the Woods there was a small, empty shack that there were no records of anyone building. Anyone who entered the supposed shack would supposedly get calls on their PET from a supposed unknown source and if you answered the supposed calls you would die. Supposedly. What it likely _actually_ was, as far as Viola could figure out, was that early settlers of what eventually became Esterwood encountered some weird technological interference in the general area, probably from a buried pre-splice city (there were a lot of those), and just sort of _assumed_ that it was a ghost.

Viola prided herself on her rationality, at least within limits. If she actually _encountered_ a Flicker in person she would reconsider her stance on their veracity, just a little bit. But for now, she’d gone to the Woods on a regular basis for all of her fucking life and hadn’t _once_ encountered anything supernatural so fuck it.

Of course, she still made a point of not going _too_ deep in the Woods. She was a skeptic, yes, but she wasn’t _stupid_. If ghosts were fake and she didn’t go too deep in the not-haunted forest then she just never went too deep into the not-haunted forest, big fucking deal. But if ghosts somehow turned out to be _real_ and she didn’t go too deep in the actually haunted forest then she didn’t run the risk of being killed by a ghost. It was a win-win situation, as far as she was concerned.

Still, she liked to spend time there, even if only in the outskirts. Mostly because no one else could stand the place. If she ever wanted to be alone, then she could go to the Woods and be safe in the knowledge that no one would follow her. There was nothing but her and the trees, as far as the eye could see. Which, granted, wasn’t very far because the foliage was _very_ dense. There was someone whose job it was to ensure the forest stayed healthy – it _was_ technically a nature preserve, after all – but Viola had never encountered them.

She couldn’t stay for long. Not today, at least. She had a pending conversation with Aubrey, and that required a mirror. Last she’d checked there weren’t any mirrors in the forest. But, well. She sorely needed some extensive alone time. Aubrey could wait a few hours. Viola pulled out her cards, with which to practice some flourishes, flipped her hoodie up – the fabric doubled as headphones – and fiddled with her PET before settling on an old favourite. A surviving pre-splice album that her father had introduced her to, and his father had introduced _him_ too, going back generations.

“ _Welcome! You have entered the cranial vistas of psychogenisis. This is the place of no-time and no-space. Do not be afraid, for I am merely the vocal manifestation of your eternal dreams. I am as water, as air – like breath itself. Do not be afraid.”_

Viola closed her eyes and smiled as the soundscape washed over her. Eventually, she’d have to return to the real world. But for now she was content to lose herself to the music and travel into another world. A world where there was no Lars, no Dr. Baas, no Ursula or Erin or Vienna or anyone she knew.

And for now that was enough.

~~~~~~

Of course, escapism was only temporary. By necessity – any kind of permanent escapism was likely the result of mental illness. And Viola had enough doubts about the state of her mental health as it was. So _eventually_ the album ended and she returned home.

“You’re late! Where were you, I was worried!”

“Sorry,” Viola replied to her mother.

“Well, you’re here now,” Vinnie interjected, ever the peacemaker. “Give your mother a minute to cook a fresh batch of rigatoni and then you can grab some dinner.”

“‘kay.” Viola flipped her hoodie back and pulled out her PET. She wasn’t really particularly looking at anything, but she found that she was more likely to be left alone if it looked like she was busy. “Sorry for being late,” she said again, halfheartedly.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Sometimes you need to be alone. Just, uh, try to be home in time for dinner next time?”

“Pah, the gravy’s better now. ‘s had time to _sit_.” Clara swooped in with an enormous bowl of meat and sauce and pasta, shoving it in her daughter’s hands. “Just call next time. And stay out of the Woods! They’re dangerous!”

“Yes’m,” Viola said, taking the bowl which was quickly followed by a fork and a spoon. “I’m gonna eat in my room.”

“Not feeling particularly social tonight?”

“Not really.”

“That’s fine. Remember to bring your plate down when you’re done.”

“I will,” Viola lied, turning to walk up the stairs to her room. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be in Locksmouth tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Viola turned back around and put her bowl and utensils on the nearest flat surface before scurrying over to her father and giving him a big hug. “I love you, papa.”

“Love you too, princess.” Vinnie smiled warmly, reaching down and gently tousling his daughter’s hair.

“That’s enough of that. Go eat! Before it gets cold!”

“Listen to your mother, dear.”

“‘kay.” Viola released her father before scurrying back to her food, grabbing it, and heading upstairs. “Thanks for dinner!” she shouted down as she went.

The twins had always had the luxury of having their own rooms. The Coniglio household had more room than there were people in the Coniglio family. Which suited Viola just fine, frankly. She liked the privacy.

Especially when she wanted to speak with Aubrey.

There had been a period when her family had removed every mirror in her room, around the same time that the threat of time in the Brain Bullet had been hanging over her head like a sword of Damocles. But she had since successfully convinced her family that she was no longer talking to people who didn’t exist and so had been given the privilege of a small table-top mirror. It only took a moment of looking into it for Aubrey to make her presence known.

“Are you feeling better?” She spoke in a hushed tone, and Viola replied in kind.

“No.”

Aubrey sighed. “Do you want to talk about it?”  
  


“Yes but I don’t think I can.”

“That’s fair.”

“I mean, they always told me you’re not real. And they’re probably right. But here you are. _Again_. Like, I was thinking that this morning was probably a fluke. Maybe I was just tired or stressed. But no, I’ve had two whole hours of no pressure whatsoever and here you are, immediately.” Viola carefully pushed her bowl of pasta out of the way before gently slamming her face into her desk. “God, do you have any idea what it’s like to know for a fact that you’re crazy?”

“I can go away if you want.”

“No! Uh, I mean. No. I don’t want you to go away again.”

Aubrey sighed. “Well, for what it’s worth, in my experience crazy people usually don’t worry if they’re crazy or not. I don’t know if that’s very reassuring, though.”

“Is it? I’d rather not be crazy.”

“Yes, but imagine the alternative. If I’m not imaginary, then what _am_ I?”

Viola sighed. “That’s a good question. What _are_ you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course you don’t.” That wasn’t news to Viola. Aubrey didn’t even remember her _name_ – Aubrey Kadabra was just something that Viola had made up as a child, for the sake of having something to call her.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s _fine_ ,” Viola replied, her tone of voice making it clear that it wasn’t really fine. “It’s not your fault you don’t remember who you are. It’s not _your_ fault you exist, it’s _my_ fault for not just ignoring you.”

“Well,” Aubrey replied after a moment of silence. “I appreciate you not just ignoring me.”

“It wouldn’t be fair. Even if you don’t exist you still deserve someone to talk to.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s fine,” Viola repeated, turning back to her pasta. “I’m gonna eat dinner and then we can work on some magic tricks. Just like old times.”

“Just like old times.

~~~~~~

For most of her life, Ursula had suffered from recurring nightmares. Though, really, she wasn’t quite sure that nightmare was the right term for what they were. They weren’t _scary_ , per se. Nothing horrific happened in them. But there was something about them, a sort of fundamental _wrongness_. Like... Well, like _something_. She’d never been great at metaphor.

Everything was outlined in red, for one. A deep, dark purple-y hue of red, like wine, in thick, broad strokes. Like a comic book but fucked up – most comic book characters weren’t starscapes. It was like she had been dropped in the infinite void of space, but it _wasn’t_ space, it was some kind of office building and the only reason she could tell the difference was because, again, everything was outlined in magenta.

It hurt to look at for long periods of time. But she couldn’t close her eyes, no matter how hard she tried.

There were people there, the same starscapes with the same outlines, but _moving_ and _talking_ , and honestly that just made it _worse_. Talking wasn’t really the right word for it. They opened the voids where their mouths should have been and what came out was most often just _noise_ , a loud harsh buzzing like a recording that had gotten corrupted. Every now and then, though, she managed to catch bits and pieces of intelligible conversation.

“How’s progress?”

“ _Agonizing_. I’m convinced they’re asking us to do the impossible.”

“It’s clearly not impossible. Doctor _**#$^@!% &**_ managed just fine.”

“Yes, well, Doctor _**& ^$#&%^**_ is a freak of fucking nature. We’re just normal people, we can’t _do_ this in the timeframe they’ve given us.”

“You’re not just normal people, you’re experts. I’m sure you can make it.”

“Well, how’s _your_ half going, then?”

Silence.

“Yeah, I thought so.” The figure slumped down in the strange facsimile of a chair, burying what should have been his face in what should have been his hands. “I heard they’re gonna kill off _***(#%@**_.”

“What? That’s not what I heard. They’re supposed to be just _**%*$*(@)*)@#*(**_.”

“How far along are _you_ with that, then? Could _you guys_ keep him alive?”

“No.”

“My point exactly. It’s a death sentence, and it’s a death sentence that puts more pressure on _us_ because who’s gonna deal with _***(^*$)%*(#%@%**_?”

“That’s what we’re here for.”

“Yeah and we’re one hundred percent not ready to take up the mantle! We’ve got like _four_ guys who are _sort of_ ready and _***%#$@**_ is barely _functional_ , let alone self aware.”

The other figure buried its face in its hands. “It’s too much pressure. We need some kind of breakthrough.”

“I don’t think that’s in the cards at the rate we’re going.”

“Well,” said the second figure, slowly pulling itself upright in a way that made Ursula want to vomit. “We’re _definitely_ not making any progress just sitting in the break room complaining. I’m gonna get back to work.”

“I’ll be with you in a minute. Let me finish my coffee. Oh, by the way, have you talked with Gen-” and then it devolved back into distorted buzzing. Ursula’s hands jumped to her ears, in a futile attempt to block out the noise. Futile because she _had_ no hands, or ears. Not in the dream. It was like she was a ghost, watching people live their lives in abstract. It made getting a restful sleep almost impossible. And it wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t wake up, not until the morning.

And right now, the morning felt a very, _very_ long way off.

~~~~~~

Vienna was in school. It wasn’t _actually_ school. If she were awake, it would have registered instantly that nowhere in school was nearly this _vast_ and _open_. But she was dreaming, and so she just instinctively _knew_ that it was school. Wherever she was, it seemed like everyone else was there also. People milled about the space, collecting into sparse groups or just wandering about aimlessly. Vienna was doing the latter. But she _wanted_ to be doing the former. She was looking for her friends. That was why she was here.

It wasn’t _hard_ to find them, of course. They stood out in the crowd of faceless strangers. That wasn’t the problem. Vienna’d _had_ this dream before, variations of the same basic theme. She knew what was coming next. She took a step forward, and a massive wall erupted from the ground. Deep red brickwork, with white mortar that almost seemed to _undulate_. Like it was alive. “No.” She wasn’t entirely sure whether she herself said it, or someone else. She attempted to walk around, but the wall seemed to _move_ , without actually moving. Placing itself between her and her destination no matter where she went.

There was a chink in the wall. Just large enough for her to look through and see her pack. Erin and Ursula and Viola. They were arguing, passionately. Ursula shouted, Erin spoke with unbridled venom, while Viola frowned and fidgeted with her clothing, muttering her own complaints under her breath. “It’s for the best,” said the voice. She was still unsure if it was her own – she felt like she would be aware of it if it was, but there was a strange sort of disconnect. Like it _was_ her, but also _wasn’t_ at the same time. “They only cause pain. Better to be alone but safe. Let me protect you.”

“I don’t want to be protected,” Vienna replied. Presumably this meant the voice _wasn’t_ her, but there was still that doubt in her mind and she wasn’t really sure _why_.

“Preposterous folly. But I cannot stop you. Only here, I can keep you safe. Safety requires sacrifice.”

“Bullshit.”

“None of this is real,” the voice said wearily. “I cannot help you when you are awake. So I will help you here. I am sorry.”

The ground beneath Vienna’s feet began to _rumble_ , like an earthquake. Shifting and rippling and breaking as more wall erupted forth. She darted to her left, and was blocked by brickwork. Before she even had a chance to turn around her right was blocked by a third wall. Slowly, she turned to face the last path that was open to her. “Please,” she managed to say. “Don’t do this.”

“I’m sorry,” the voice said again as Vienna was slowly engulfed by darkness

~~~~~~

Viola’s recurring nightmare was much more existential than Ursula’s or Vienna’s. There was nothing uncanny about the setting, no horrible noises, no massive walls erupting from the ground.

She found herself in a crowded street. Far too busy to be Esterwood. It reminded her, dimly, of childhood vacations to Anchorsway or Locksmouth, only moreso. People everywhere, walking and talking and laughing and arguing. It was _alive_ , in a way that nowhere she’d ever been in her life quite had been. _Certainly_ not her hometown.

And she needed help. She wasn’t entirely sure with _what_ , but she needed it. Desperately. “Excuse me? Hello?” she said. No one responded. They just walked past her – walked _through_ her. “Ah! Um, h-hello? I need help. Please.” She reached out in an attempt to grab at a passerby’s sleeve. Her hand went through his arm like he wasn’t there at all. Like _she_ wasn’t there at all. Dimly, her dream-addled mind registered that it wasn’t actually _her_ hand. It was a pale, translucent blue. Like glass, outlined by dark green.

“Hello?” Viola jumped slightly. She had honestly not expected anyone to acknowledge her, much less talk to her. She turned to the direction of the voice and ran over.

There, standing in the reflective surface of a storefront’s windows, was Viola Coniglio. “You know you should be careful about talking to me in public,” she said to her reflection. The words came naturally, like she was always going to say them.

The reflection of herself nodded silently, and smiled slightly. She placed her hand on the glass, and Viola placed her own hand on her reflection’s. They stood there in silence for just a moment.

“Hey, princess, whatcha’ lookin’ at?” Her father spoke within the window, to her reflection.

“Oh, uh. Nothing, papa. Just a bit tired, is all.”

“That’s fine. We can go home if you want?”

“No, no it’s fine. Sorry, I’ll try and keep up.”

The reflection of her father nodded and left. The reflected Viola turned and gave her a sad look before leaving. Once again, Viola found herself alone. Deeply, profoundly alone.

~~~~~~

  
Erin found herself within a deep forest. The air was moist and chilly, and crepuscular rays crept through the canopy where there was room. She pulled her arms close to her body and shivered slightly. Her first instinct was to find a way out of the forest. But, dimly, she remembered this dream. She knew how it went. And it would go the same way regardless of what she did. So she might as well save the effort.

She sat down on the soft, verdant ground. Everything in the forest was verdant, bright emerald greens highlighted by the golden sunlight. It was oddly comforting, given that it was also cold and wet and she was sitting on dirt and grass. She felt at peace. Safe.

Small creatures scuttled around on the forest floor, giving her a fairly wide berth. She didn’t really blame them – they were quite tiny, though clearly humanoid. It would probably be easy to accidentally crush them underfoot by just sort of _being_ in their general vicinity. She didn’t particularly _want_ to hurt them, and they _certainly_ didn’t want to _be_ hurt, so it was in everyone’s best interests to stay far apart. She watched them mill about, going about their daily lives. They were too small for her to really quite comprehend exactly what they were doing, but there was something meditative about it. Quiet contemplation of life too small to ever matter to her.

She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she let the atmosphere wash over her and waited for the other shoe to drop. Sure enough, as she concentrated, she could _hear_ it in the distance. A soft, rubbery _noise_ , distant at first but coming closer and closer with a steady rhythm. Boing, boing, _boing_. The tiny creatures began to mill about in an approximation of panic, scattering in every direction as they ran for the safety of their homes. Erin felt that meditative state washed away by the impending disaster.

A large, blue rubber ball came bounding into the clearance. It slammed roughly into the ground before bouncing several feet into the air with another loud _boing, boing,_ _ **boing**_ -

Erin darted awake in time with the ball colliding with her face in the dream. “F _uuuuck_ ,” she groaned in frustration, burying her head in her pillow for just a few moments before blindly fumbling for her PET. Two AM. Unsurprising. “God dammit,” she muttered, burying herself deeper in her covers. If she was lucky she might get a few more hours of sleep. But she doubted it. This was, after all, a recurring dream. She couldn’t count the number of times that damned rubber ball had smacked her in the face

And her friends wondered why she was such a bitch.

~~~~~~

Viola hadn’t slept well. She got the impression that none of her pack _had_. They all seemed dead-eyed as they wandered into Dr. Baas’s office first thing in the morning. The king cobra, for her part, was bright eyed and about as bushy tailed as someone without fur could be. “Good morning girls! I hope you’re all ready to work, because you’ve got a long afternoon ahead of you. Today you’ll be working with the janitorial staff, but we’ll be handing you around town wherever you’re needed. I’ve already made a deal with the caretaker of the Woods District for you to do a little bit of gardening later in the week, but I want you all to start off slowly for now.”

None of them had the energy to say anything in response, so she had dismissed them. The whole day seemed to blur together. Math class, then chemistry, then a free period, then lunch. It happened, and Viola barely noticed.

“Hey, Viola!” At some point Vicky of all people had sidled up to her. “Sooooooo, History next?”

Viola stared at her like she’d just grown a second head, cringing into herself and leaning away from the sudden intrusion. “Um. Hi?”

“I figure since we’re in the same class, we might as well go together, you know? Woohoo, history, am I right?”

“what”

Vicky draped an arm over Viola’s shoulder. “Look, I figure we got off on the wrong foot. You seem like a nice enough person aside from probably being a bit crazy in the head, you know?”

Viola cringed further, attempting to subtly extricate herself from Vicky’s grasp. “Okay. Please don’t touch me.”

Vicky pressed her body up against the smaller rabbit. Oh god, Viola could feel their breasts _touching_. “And like, you _mostly_ don’t talk to mirrors anymore apparently, so it’s just the weird occult shit and I figure having a _real friend_ might help keep your mind off of it!”

“ _Please stop touching me_.”

Vicky did not stop touching her. “But, I mean, this can all wait. Come on, we’ve got class to get to!” Without any further words – well, no, with _far too many_ further words, Vicky dragged the hapless rabbit off towards history. “So hey, since my parents are away I’ve got a lot of free time. I mean, I still hafta look after Sophie, but she’s a good kid and you’d probably like her. We can just sorta hang out at my place and watch movies and eat shitty unhealthy food and talk about boys. That’s what friends do, right? I’m _pretty_ sure that’s what friends do. And then we can wait hold on why aren’t we moving anymore-”

Ursula lifted Vicky up, away from Viola, and gave her a good solid _glare_. “She said not to touch her.”

Vicky swallowed heavily. “Uh, yes’m. Sorry.”

Ursula nodded, putting Vicky down. The sheep scampered off towards class, while Viola let out a deep sigh of _relief_. “Thanks.”

“No problem. C’mon, let’s get to class.” Math was the only class all four of them had _together_ , but Viola shared chemistry with Erin and History with Ursula. It made much more sense to walk to classes with her packmate than with a fucking childhood bully.

Still, she wasn’t entirely thrilled when Ursula unthinkingly grabbed her hand. The gesture sent a shiver down the rabbit’s spine. “Uh, I-I’ll catch up to you in a minute.”

“We don’t _got_ a minute,” Ursula replied wearily. “C’mon, we’re in the back half of the school day, let’s not drag our feet. Okay?”

“O-okay.” Dammit. Viola wasn’t going to be able to get away with sneaking out of Mr. Murphy’s class to masturbate. And with the state she suddenly found herself in, she doubted she’d be able to function at _all_ until she let off some steam. “Okay. Sorry. Let’s go.”

Ursula nodded and then dragged her off towards history, not too dissimilar to the earlier situation with Vicky. At least their boobs weren’t touching, though somehow holding hands was _worse_.

She darted forward and took the lead, blushing furiously beneath her fur. “Woah, someone’s eager.”

“I just wanna get this over with.”

“Fair enough. I don’t blame you.”

Viola didn’t particularly pay attention to Ursula’s response. She just made a beeline to class and tried to not think about Vicky’s boobs or the way her body had pressed against her or the way she was _holding hands with Ursula oh god_.

~~~~~~

History was set to go by in a similar fugue state to the rest of the day, for both Ursula and Viola. Mr. Murphy wasn’t the most lively of teachers, a fact that _probably_ had nothing to do with his being a sloth, but it was a coincidence that most students found _hilarious_. Far funnier than it really was, if they were honest with themselves.

“The geopolitical situation in the Neo-Medieval era was typically strained at best. Wandering warlords with bands of marauders armed with whatever rudimentary weapons they could scrounge up.” It was remarkable how he could make roving bands of barbarians so mind-numbingly boring. Something about his tone of voice. “Now, bear in mind that-”

The lecture was abruptly interrupted when every PET in the classroom abruptly let out a loud, harsh buzzing noise. “What?”

“That’s the emergency alert, isn’t it? I don’t think it’s ever gone off before outside of like scheduled test broadcasts.”

“What’s going on?”

“Now, now. Settle down,” Mr. Murphy droned in a dull monotone. “Whatever it is, you can all check it _after_ the lecture.”

“But it’s an emergency alert.”

“What if we need to evacuate?”

“I’m sure it’s just a test. It can’t possibly be more important than Neo-Medieval geopolitics. Now, everyone please pay attention to-”

Once again, Mr. Murphy’s attempts to return the class to the topic at hand were interrupted. The door abruptly burst open and Mrs. Eckstein stumbled in, followed shortly by Mrs. Rothschild. “Zee, we can’t panic over this. That’ll just make things worse.”

“I’m not fucking panicking. Look at me, I’m the fucking picture of serenity. Ursula, grab your shit, we’re going home. Now.”

Ursula tensed up. Something suddenly felt wrong, deeply and profoundly. “What?” The sensation reminded her of her dreams. She didn’t like it.

“Now just a moment, ladies, you can’t just barge into my classroom shouting expletives and-”

“Check the emergency alert, god _dammit_ , we don’t have time for fucking around!”

Mrs. Rothschild gave the sloth a pained look. “Sorry, it’s just... very stressful for her. For all of us.” She nodded slightly, turning to the students. “You had all better check your PETs. Now.”

Ursula didn’t want to. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt a deep, dark anxiety in the pit of her stomach. Like she _knew_ what was coming and it was a _very bad thing_. The manic urgency in her mother’s voice, the way Mrs. Rothschild was quaking ever so slightly. And more than that, a deep sense of instinctive apprehension as she tuned into the emergency alert.

“-have been unsuccessful. Every entrance to the dome is sealed and all communications have ceased. We’ve been attempting to get in contact with _anyone_ within the dome, but have been unsuccessful so far.”

“What?”

“What’s going on. What dome?”

“I repeat. There has been... _something_. I wish I could give more details, but all we know is that there was a series of explosions within Locksmouth. All attempts at communication have been unsuccessful. Every entrance to the dome is sealed and-”

There was a very brief final moment of calm as the message played out a few more times. No one spoke. No one could bring themselves to. Vicky dropped her PET. Ursula was hit by a sudden wave of nausea. Viola shook in her chair, tears welling up in her eyes. Everything turned into a vague blur. Viola wasn’t sure what happened next, but _something_ broke through the quiet before the storm. Someone spoke up, or got up to leave, or Mr. Murphy attempted to calm the class. All of them happened, though Viola wasn’t sure which came first.

All she knew is that immediately after, all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of this. Again; it's almost done, so I've got a big backlog of it to post, along with other stories I also need to post.


	3. Act Three - Everything Comes Crashing Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Locksmouth descends into chaos, so to do its neighbours. With so many family members missing, their fate unknown, the people of Esterwood come together wherever they can. Viola's pack are no exception. Forced to coexist in such close proximity, tensions rise and conflict begins to take shape.
> 
> But, as always, there's much more to the situation than meets the eye. While petty arguments fester above, something is stirring below. Something that will change Viola's life forever.

Vienna’s first instinct was to panic, which would have been counterproductive. So instead she went with her second instinct and attempted to call her father. Her attempts to remain calm were thwarted, though, when she immediately received an automated response – the PET she was attempting to contact was currently unavailable. “God dammit,” she muttered to herself as she made a second attempt and was met with the same result. “God _dammit!_ ” This time she shouted, though no one else in chemistry seemed to notice or care. Mrs. Rothschild had left the classroom almost immediately after the emergency alert came, and the other students were milling about in a blind panic. Fiddling with their own PETs, attempting to leave, or just trying to stay out of the way of students attempting to leave. _Vienna_ was trying not to panic, but it seemed she was mostly alone. “Fuck,” she hissed as she got her fourth automated response. “Okay, this clearly isn’t working. Need a new plan.”

Nothing came to mind. Or at least nothing that she didn’t immediately shoot down as impractical, unhelpful, or just dumb. Attempting to _go_ to Locksmouth was, of course, right out. Calling her mother was more reasonable but ultimately she decided against it – if _she_ was still attempting to get in contact with Vinnie, then it was almost certain that so was Clara. She couldn’t think of anyone else to call who might pick up, or any app that might be otherwise helpful in the current situation, so her PET was pretty much useless.

She felt like she should be doing _something_ , but she couldn’t think of _what_ she should be doing so she ended up just sitting at her desk, staring off into space. Paralyzed with indecision, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

She hadn’t exactly expected the other shoe to be Erin bursting into her now mostly empty classroom, but she welcomed _anything_ to distract her from the mounting feeling of powerlessness. She was still dressed in her gym uniform, which clung tightly to her ample chest. “Have you-”

“Yeah,” Vienna interrupted, knowing exactly what Erin was going to ask. “Can’t even get a ring. What about you?”

Erin sighed. “Shit. Same here, for both of them.”

“I’d rather at least be able to _know_ if he’s picking up or not.”

“ _Shit_. We need to do something.”

“Okay, but _what_.”

“I don’t know!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation. “But we can’t just fucking sit here doing nothing!” Her words reflected Vienna’s own anxieties but the rabbit wasn’t really in the mood to admit that.

“You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“Okay. Okay, you’re right. Give me a second.” Erin paced furiously, and Vienna decided now was probably a good time to stand up. “Okay. We should go find Viola and Ursula. Ursula’s got family in Locksmouth right now too, right?”

“The general vicinity, yeah. I think they’re outside of the dome, though.”

“That’s good! Maybe she’s managed to contact them and we can get a more firsthand account of what’s going on over there.”

“Okay, that’s the beginnings of a plan. And then?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“ _Brilliant_.”

“Well, let’s see _you_ do better, then.”

Vienna balked slightly. It was harsh, but she couldn’t really blame Erin. Her father was currently trapped in Locksmouth while some undefined emergency was going on, yes. But _both_ of Erin’s parents were trapped in Locksmouth. Proportionately, she probably had it the worst of the pack – Vienna and Viola still had each other and their mother, Ursula’s parents were likely outside of the lockdown and she still had three other parents in Esterwood. Erin had no one to fall back on. It was no _wonder_ she was stressed.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Apologies won’t get our parents back.”

“Yeah, but... Ugh.” Vienna grabbed her backpack and slapped it on her back, the smart fibres adhered it in place. “Let’s just go track down the others.” It was _something_ to do, which was better than nothing.

Erin nodded. “That’s... yes, that’s a good plan.” She didn’t bother mentioning that it was the exact same plan she had come up with not a few seconds earlier, which was unusually charitable. But, again, Vienna was surprised that Erin could keep her composure at all. If _her_ entire family, Vinnie and Clara and Viola all, were missing and she knew exactly nothing about it except that there was an explosion or more than one explosions, _she_ wouldn’t be keeping herself together nearly as well as Erin was. It probably didn’t help that she was coming directly off of gym class – she was probably _tired_ , in addition to the shit going on in Locksmouth.

This was all just conjecture, of course, but frankly Vienna wasn’t in a position to think straight.

“Where should we look first?”

“They’ve got history this period, let’s start there.” Vienna turned and walked to the door. “If they’re not there, uh, I guess check the nearby bathrooms? Viola has a habit of hiding in the toilets when she’s stressed, and Ursula would _probably_ stick close to her.”

“And if they’re not there?”

“Then I guess we call ‘em up. And if they don’t answer I guess we check at home, see if they went there.”

“Okay. Okay, yes. Let’s do that. Can we stop by the gym, first? I kind of left my stuff there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s not rush this. Just stay calm and collected. We should also stop by Dr. Baas’s office. I get the impression school’s cancelled for the day, but we _probably_ shouldn’t blow off our community service without asking.”

“Okay. Good. We have a plan. Find Viola and Ursula, try and get in contact with Ursula’s parents, figure out where to go from there.” She made a fist with her right hand and gently punched the palm of her left.

“Yeah. Knock on wood, nothing else is gonna go wrong today.”

Erin frowned. “Please, let’s try not to actively invoke bad luck, because I can imagine _numerous_ ways that this situation could get worse and I really don’t want to see any of them happen.”

“Fair. Let’s get going.” With no further conversation to be had, the two turned and left the lab.

~~~~~~

Vicky had been one of the first students to leave history class. There hadn’t been an _official_ announcement that class was cancelled, but frankly if it _wasn’t_ then fuck it, she was playing hooky today and the administration could _bite her_. She had higher priorities than school right now.

She charged her way through the relatively crowded hallways like a sheep on a mission, dodging and weaving around her panicked classmates. Her cheerleading skills proved advantageous in this particular situation. The crowd was sparse enough that it wasn’t completely impenetrable, but _dense_ enough that she still needed to rely on her agility to make it through at _all_.

And she _still_ managed to smack headfirst into someone. In her defence, it was more like Lars collided with _her_ , darting out into her path at the last possible second. Both sheep and lion were sent sprawling onto the hallway floor in opposite directions, and had to quickly scramble upright and out of the way of the stampeding masses. “Watch where you’re fucking going!” Vicky snapped, before registering how much bigger than her Lars was. There was a brief moment of hesitation, but that was quickly overpowered by sororal concern. She had to get to Sophie, as soon as possible. There wasn’t fucking _time_ to sit around being scared by a big weird nerd loser. “Out of my fucking _way_ ,” she shouted, shoving the larger boy out of her way.

Lars limply allowed Vicky to push him around. His mind was elsewhere at the moment. He resumed his slow, meandering journey to his locker, shaking slightly. He had never had the best relationship with his parents, but they were still his _parents_ , dammit. And that was why he had to get to his locker. That was where he kept his cards during school. Somewhere safe, but also close at hand. Specifically for situations like this.

The cards would know what to do.

He pulled the deck out of the locker, not bothering to close it behind him (the cards were the only important thing in there anyway), before making his way to a nearby classroom. He needed a flat surface to make a reading. The other students in the room gave him a wide berth, especially when they saw the cards. Understandable, he supposed. They had power, and could be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. But he wasn’t the wrong hands.

He carefully shuffled the deck – though he was loath to admit it, he didn’t have Viola’s level of manual dexterity, and his deck was slightly larger than hers. _Supposedly_ it was an exact replica of Houdini’s own deck, which made them significantly more powerful than Viola’s generic deck, but also meant he had sixty cards to deal with instead of fifty five. Satisfied that he had shuffled the cards enough, he closed his eyes and carefully drew six cards, placing them face-down on the desk.

Slowly, anxiously, he reached down and flipped each card in sequence, his heart sinking further with each one. It was, quite possibly, the worst possible outcome. A left arm, a right arm, a left leg, a right leg, and the main body. The complete Forbidden One. In an upright position, it would have been an incredibly good omen, signifying impending victory. Mixed orientations meant a mixed result. But he had drawn every single one inverted, in perfect sequence. Unfathomable disaster loomed on the horizon.

What caught him off guard was the sixth card. A Dark Rabbit, in an upright position. Given its position in the hand, its orientation, and the fact that it _was_ a Dark Rabbit, he could only think of one possible meaning it could have. But it was, frankly, _impossible_. The cards _had_ to be wrong.

There was no _way_ that Viola Coniglio was going to be personally, directly responsible for averting an upcoming apocalypse, after all.

Vicky charged the rest of the way to the elementary school without incident, making as direct beeline to her sister’s classroom as was possible given the layout of the school. Nothing was going to stop her. Not other students, not teachers, nothing. She didn’t slow down until she actually _got_ to the elementary school. She knew exactly where Sophie’s classroom _was_ , but she couldn’t guarantee that Sophie was still in there.

Still, it was the first place she thought to check, and her gambit paid off. “Vicky!” Sophie barrelled forward, gut-checking her older sister with a forceful hug. This time, the older sheep saw it coming and wasn’t knocked over, but she _did_ get the wind knocked out over her. She gently stroked her younger sister’s curly hair as she cried and squeezed.

“I was going to call you,” Sophie’s teacher said wearily. Diane Singh, a duck who had only graduated a few years ago. Vicky remembered her, dimly, though she mostly knew her as Sophie’s teacher. “Dr. Baas says that school is cancelled for the rest of the day, obviously. I’ve been trying to get in contact with as many parents as I can, but I’m not getting a lot of answers. Are you two going to be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Vicky replied. “I’m technically supposed to be babysitting for another week or so, but I don’t think I can handle Sophie alone right now.”

Diane nodded sombrely. “Well, you two can stay at my place, if you can’t find anywhere else. I could use the company, my husband is visiting family in Locksmouth and...” She trailed off, not needing to finish.

“I guess there’s a lot of people who are gonna need company, huh,” Vicky muttered, her voice tinged with worry. “You know what, I’m gonna take you up on that offer.”

“Thank you,” Diane said with relief. “I’ll try and look after as many of the children whose parents are in Locksmouth as I can, so I’ll need the help.”

“Right, makes sense.” Vicky nervously ran a hand through her hair.

It was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~

Viola felt _sick_. A deep, profound illness that sank heavily into the pit of her stomach. She very nearly threw up right there in the classroom, but managed to hold it in long enough to run to the bathroom. She hadn’t really had much of an appetite at lunch, and wasn’t entirely sure if that was a blessing or a curse. There wasn’t much lunch for her to lose, but she ended up dry heaving for several minutes as a result. She groaned weakly, trying not to let her hands slip into the bowl as she pulled herself upright. “Fuck,” she muttered. Not at anything in particular, but just because she felt like she should say _something_. Just to confirm she could still speak after all that vomiting. Her throat hurt slightly, and she could feel the remnants of her illness slowly but inevitably turning into a crusty gross mess.

Flushing the toilet, she wandered out of the stall in a slight daze. The sinks were, thankfully, not too far away. Her limbs felt week and rubbery, and she had a difficult time keeping steady on her feet. She wobbled her way over to the sink, turned it on, and began to wash her face. Hot water pooled in her hands, and once it started overflowing she splashed it on her face before repeated the process several times. A careful, exact routine. Simple. Repetitive. As much about cleaning her face as it was about calming down, breaking herself out of the panic she found herself mired in.

“You okay?” Ursula asked, waiting near the entrance of the bathroom. Her voice was slightly shaky, betraying that she herself wasn’t okay.

“No.”

“Yeah fair.” Ursula shuffled restlessly. “You should get some water. Or something. I think I remember reading somewhere that you should drink water after throwing up to clear the stomach acid out of your throat.”

“I think if I put anything else in my stomach I’d just throw up again.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m talking out of my ass anyway.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea. I tried calling Leanne and Scarlet but neither of them picked up. Which I guess is a good sign because apparently a lot of people can’t even get through to Locksmouth at all.” Ursula sighed, slowly sliding down the wall until she was in a crouching position. “What about you?”

“I don’t fucking know. I kind of just want to pick a direction and run in it until I can’t anymore.”

“That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“Yeah but I kinda don’t care right now.”

Ursula sighed again. “Look, I’m not gonna stop you, but you should probably not if you’re not feeling great.”

Viola leaned over the sink, gripping the edge just slightly too tightly. “I-” She cut herself off as she looked up to find her reflection giving her a subtle dirty look. “Okay,” she said, against her better judgment. Her reflection nodded, just enough for her to see it, and then returned to mimicking her every movement. “I kind of just want to be alone, though.”

“At least let Vienna know you’re okay. Okay?”

“Fine.”

“Okay.” Ursula pulled herself back upright and walked over to Viola. “I know you’re stressed, but we’re kind of all in the same boat, here. We need to stick together.”

“Yeah.” Viola stared into the mirror, and her reflection stared back in the exact same manner. “You know what, maybe this is what we needed.”

“You think so?” Ursula shrugged. “I guess I can see that, yeah. Kinda hard to justify fighting all the time when we don’t know if our family are even alive.” Ursula couldn’t help but laugh. “God, that’s kinda fucked up when I put it like that.”

Viola let out a small, choked laugh of her own. “Yeah, maybe we’re not cut out for optimism.”

“C’mon, let’s go find the others.”

“Yeah.”

~~~~~~

The pack met up very shortly after they set out to find each other. One of the advantages of having a twin was that each Coniglio sister knew roughly how the other thought, and the other two just had to stick close to them. “So, to be clear, we’re gonna be staying at my place for a while,” Ursula said, matter-of-factly. It had actually been Viola’s idea, and Ursula agreed with the reasoning – and, frankly, she didn’t find any better ideas coming to mind. Some fucking Alpha she was turning out to be. “It’s the biggest, so there’s room for all of us. We can stop by your houses to pick up your stuff and Mama Coniglio first, but I think we should probably try and go as quickly as possible.”

“That makes sense,” Erin said wearily. Normally she would have had some kind of objection at the ready, but she found she didn’t have the energy to be catty. So instead she just settled on being mousey. “We decided it’d be a good idea to stop by Dr. Baas’s office first. I doubt she’ll be making us go through with the community service, but it would be an astoundingly terrible idea to assume.”

“That works,” Ursula replied with a shrug. Like Erin, she also lacked the energy to do anything other than go with the flow.

“We should also probably go ask your parents if they’re okay with it first,” Vienna added. “They probably will be? But they historically don’t exactly... _like_ us?”

“Yeah,” Ursula replied tersely. She clearly didn’t really have anything else to say on the matter, so instead she turned and led the way to Dr. Baas’s office. The school wasn’t exactly large, and none of them were exactly in the mood to linger, so barely any time had passed once they reached their destination.

Dr. Baas was sitting at her desk, slumped over with her head buried in her hands. “Oh,” she said, looking up as they entered the room. “Sorry, give me a moment to collect myself.”

“Are you okay?” Ursula said, instinctively. Authority figure or no, she was very obviously distraught.

“I’ll be fine. I’m just... worried, that’s all.” She said nothing further on the matter. Presumably she _also_ had family or friends or both who were currently in Locksmouth, but none of them really knew much about her home life. Esterwood was a very tight-knit community, where most everyone knew most everyone else. But there were exceptions to that, and Viola and her pack were probably chief among them. Still, Dr Baas continued on as though they needed no further context than that. “School is going to be cancelled for a little bit. I expect you all to keep up with your studies independently. Also, obviously your community service will be put on hold as well. I can’t reasonably expect you to attend school-mandated punishment while school itself isn’t ongoing.”

“Okay,” Ursula said, speaking for all four of them. No one, they found, really had the energy to say much of anything.

“And listen, girls. I’m going to make a formal announcement about this soon, but I want you to stick together, okay? Avoid going anywhere alone and try not to stay out too late. This isn’t a formal curfew, but we don’t know what’s going on in Locksmouth or if it might spread to Esterwood. I don’t want any of you getting yourselves into a dangerous situation, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dr. Baas sighed with relief. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. Now please go home. And stay safe.”

~~~~~~

Esterwood wasn’t a very large town. It didn’t have nearly as large a footprint as Locksmouth or Harbington, and beyond that there was a significant portion that was entirely undeveloped forest. Which made it all the more impressive that they didn’t encounter a single person between the school and Erin’s home. It also meant that the journey only took about fifteen minutes by foot. “You all go on without me for now,” Erin insisted. “I would rather pack everything I need _now_ than have to head back here later to pick up everything other than the bare minimum.”

“We can help,” Vienna interjected. “It’ll go quicker that way. And anyway Dr. Baas said we should try and avoid being alone.”

Erin opened her mouth to object, but Ursula had already barged past her and into the empty home. “Well. Fine then, I guess that’s that decision made for me,” she muttered sullenly.

Packing didn’t take very long with the four of them working together. Erin didn’t really have much _to_ pack, really. Clothing, toiletries, a few spare understickers, and a ratty looking stuffed toy bear. It was ragged and the colours had faded almost entirely. “I have slept with her for nearly every single night of my life and I do not intend to break that habit _now_ , and if _any_ of you say _anything_ I will not fucking _hesitate_ to bite you.”

No one felt particularly motivated to make fun of Erin over her teddie bear. Vienna managed to brainstorm a few potential snide remarks, but ultimately decided against actually using any of them. Ursula didn’t even get that far, and Viola found her mind was currently elsewhere.

“That should be everything,” Erin said wearily. She had managed to fit everything into her backpack except the bear, which she held tightly under one arm. “I told you that I didn’t really need help.”

“Yes but we helped anyway,” Ursula said, accompanied with her best stern glare. It wasn’t a very good one, or Erin just had enough stamina that it didn’t effect her greatly, or perhaps a bit of both. The tall mouse just glared right back. “Whatever. Next stop is the Coniglios’.”

The Coniglio household was about as far away from the school as the Leroux home, but in a very slightly different direction. It was still nearby enough that it took only ten or so minutes to walk there. Upon opening the door, Viola found herself hit by a wall of aroma. It was a familiar sensation, but this time it felt _more_ than normal. A veritable cornucopia of scents. Tomato and olive oil and garlic dominated, punctuated by notes of shellfish and a sharp, salty kick of brine that cut through the other odours without overwhelming them.

“We’re having spaghetti puttanesca with clams, shrimp, mussels, freshly baked garlic bread, and a _really nice_ red,” came a voice from the kitchen. “I’ve also got a Tiramisu ready for dessert. _No one_ leaves this house until all of this food is gone. There’s enough for everyone. Ursula, I’ve called your parents and they’ll be over shortly.”

Ursula opened her mouth to argue, but found once again that she completely lacked the energy to do so, even disregarding the fact that Clara Coniglio was a massive hassle to argue with at the best of times. “I’m not supposed to have alcohol.”

“It’s a _very_ nice red _. Very_ expensive.” Clara said, matter-of-factly, as if that was the end of the discussion. “Everyone has a glass and if Dan wants to object he can fuck off.”

“Okay.” Ursula made the executive decision to just leave any arguing that particular point to her father.

She ended up having a glass, though Dan at least managed to convince Clara that she didn’t need a _lot_. Dinner was _expansive_. Clara had not, it turned out, been content with merely making enough for all eight people present to have a single serving of pasta – it felt more like she had made enough for the entire fucking town. Mounds of pasta, piled high with seafood, huge hunks of bread, and multiple generous pours of wine for everyone gathered – except for Ursula, who stuck to sparkling water after her first glass.

It seemed to take an eternity, with everyone going back for seconds and even thirds, but _eventually_ they ran out of spaghetti. Clara was willing to concede an hour or so for digestion, during which yet more wine was consumed, followed by dessert and cocktails. Azalea was _very insistent_ on a perfect gin martini with bitters and lemon peel regardless of how comically poorly it would pair with the tiramisu, Mindy had a mezcal paloma, Clara had an original dessert cocktail Dan made up on the spot featuring amaretto and coffee liqueur, and Dan himself had an old fashioned. The kids weren’t quite knowledgeable enough to request anything specific, so Dan gave them all Irish Coffees – he was at this point drunk enough that he was willing to give Ursula one as well, though he insisted that she would _absolutely not_ be having more than the one.

The tiramisu was, as with everything else about the meal, delicious. “Normally I would have prepared this a few days in advance, but I was operating on short notice.”

“Wouldn’t that make the cookies get soggy?” Mindy asked, prompting a furious drunken tirade from Clara.

“Pah, the cookies _should_ be soggy, that’s the whole fucking point of soaking them in coffee and booze! If you want crunchy ladyfingers then eat ladyfingers! Tiramisu should be soft and sweet and bitter and rich, it’s god damn dessert! If I don’t feel like I’m going to have a heart attack after eating it then it’s a shitty dessert!”

“Point taken,” Mindy replied, bemused and bewildered. “It was very nice, regardless.”

“Pah, I’ve made better.”

“Hopefully we don’t have the time for you to make us a better one while we’re staying together,” Azalea said, languidly sipping her martini, which prompted an emphatic nod of agreement from the rabbit. “A toast! Here’s to us not having to have many meals together!”

“I can get behind that,” Dan said, tapping his glass on the table before taking a sip of his own. “Speakin’ of bein’ together, though, what’re the sleeping arrangements?”

“We can share a room,” Vienna interjected from across the dining table. The Coniglio dining room was the second largest room in the house after the kitchen, even though it rarely saw use, so there was _more_ than enough room for everyone. The girls had mostly gathered on one end of the table, while the adults had congregated together, and there had been very little overlap in the conversations over the course of dinner.

“Us, too. We can sleep on the couch if we need to,” Azalea added.

“That shouldn’t be necessary. If the girls double up and you three share the guest room, then that’ll be enough space for everyone with a bit of room to spare in case we need to open our doors to anyone.” Clara turned to face her daughters. “Girls, you pick a roommate. I’ll go prepare the guest room.”

“Yes, mama,” the twins said in perfect unison before heading upstairs. It was getting late, and they’d all eaten a lot, and it had been a _staggeringly_ long day, so there was something of an unspoken agreement that it was bedtime.

~~~~~~

There had been minimal debate as to room assignments. Ursula had been the first to speak up, declaring her intent to share a room with Viola. None of them was particularly invested in any specific arrangement, and they were _certainly_ too tired to argue even if they were. So Erin paired with Vienna, while Ursula paired with Viola.

“I can sleep on the floor,” Ursula said, looking over the bed. It was a twin, designed very specifically to hold one person only. Viola was petite, but Ursula made up for it by being decidedly not petite. They _could_ probably fit in it together, but it would be very cramped and Viola was, in Ursula’s experience, very reluctant when it came to physical contact. The girl tended to wince slightly at _holding hands_ , so sharing such a tight space together was one hundred percent out of the question, as much as Ursula relished the thought of getting that close to Viola’s body.

“It’s fine,” Viola replied quietly. Barely at all, really. She was soft-spoken at the best of times, and when she got properly nervous she often reached the point of inaudibility. Her gaze was mostly fixed to the floor, but every now and then her eyes darted back to look at Ursula. Every time they did, she quivered nervously, and she never quite managed to look her in the eyes.

“Well, it’d be rude to make _you_ sleep on the floor.”

“It’s _fine_ ,” Viola reiterated, a bit more loudly and emphatically. Still, the way she fiddled with the hem of her hoodie nervously was all that Ursula needed to see. She had let her romantic interest in the bun inform her choice in roommates rather than her _head_. She’d never really been that good at using her head.

“We don’t _have_ to share a room, I can sleep on the couch or-”

“God dammit I said it’s _fine!_ ”

The sudden display of assertiveness took Ursula aback. “Uh?”

“Sorry,” Viola muttered, immediately back to nervous mode. “It’s fine. You don’t need to sleep on the couch or the floor. We can make it work.”

“Honey, that’s really clearly not an option,” Ursula said. “Look at you, you’re _terrified_.”

“I’m- oh my _god_.” Abruptly, Viola yanked off her hoodie and tossed it in Ursula’s face. The doberman was caught entirely off guard and was as a result briefly tangled in top, made worse when Viola’s sweatpants quickly followed before she had a chance to get the hoodie off. It took her a moment to untangle herself, and by the time she did, Viola was no longer wearing anything aside from her understickers. “Oral code 8643. Sensitivity profile ‘Pigs Fly’.”

“wha-”  
  


“Shut up and _fuck me_ , god dammit!”

~~~~~~

“What on _earth_ is that noise?”

“Maybe Ursula’s parents are fucking,” Viola replied.

“Is now really the time for that kind of thing?”

Viola shrugged. “Dunno, I can imagine it’s a pretty good distraction.”

“Well,” Erin replied, fiddling idly with her top. “When you put it like that, some OC actually sounds pretty nice right about now.”

“ _No_.”

“Oh, come _on_ , I didn’t even _ask_ yet.”

“Yes but you were _gonna_ and the answer is _no_.”

“Of course it is!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation, flopping backwards onto the bed. “It _always_ is. Next you’re going to act like I’m some kind of _monster_ for even considering the possibility.”

“What the _fuck_ is your problem? Am I not allowed to be uninterested in fucking you without getting it thrown back in my face?”

“Annnnnd _there_ we go, right on schedule.” Erin pulled herself back upright and gave Vienna a death glare. “For the record, by the way, I _wasn’t_ going to ask for sex. I can do _far_ better than you if I want,” she lied. Erin had enough of a reputation in Esterwood that the only sex she could really manage was the occasional hatefuck with Ursula. “What I _was_ going to suggest was trading Viola and myself.”

“You know what, that’s not a bad idea. I _really_ don’t look forward to having to spend the next however long sharing a room with you.”

“The feeling is mutual, darling.” Erin crossed her arms petulantly beneath the shelf of her tits. “In the meantime, you’re going to just have to suck it up and deal because this bed is _hardly_ meant for two people and I _refuse_ to sleep on the floor.”

“Couch is open.”

“ _Fuck_ you.”

“Ugh. Whatever. I’ve got homework to do.”

“Well, be quiet about it. I’m going to attempt to get some sleep.” Erin reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head before discarding it idly.

“Wh- don’t just fucking strip out of nowhere!”

“I typically sleep in the nude,” Erin replied with a shrug, moving her hands downwards to deal with her skirt. “I tend to be very sensitive to heat, and have difficulty getting to sleep otherwise. You’re just going to have to get used to my breasts, darling.”

“No! _Absolutely_ unacceptable! I don’t fucking care if you’re a guest, you are _not_ going nude in my goddamn bedroom!”

Erin lurched into a standing position, and Vienna found herself abruptly reminded that in spite of being a mouse, Erin was significantly larger than her. Her body shook slightly as she spoke, voice quivering with anger. “I have attempted to be patient with you, but this is the final straw. It is _absolutely_ not unreasonable of me to sleep in the manner in which I am the most comfortable, and if you’re going to insist otherwise you will have to _force me_.”

“ _Out._ ”

“Excuse me?”

Vienna violently pointed at the door. “ _Out. Out of my room. Now._ ”

Erin took several deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm down, before pulling her hand back in clear setup for a slap directed at Vienna’s face. The smaller rabbit moved instinctively, raising a hand to deflect the blow, but her reflexes were clearly slightly too slow. Erin’s open palm _should_ have slid right past Vienna’s hand and collided with her cheek. And it _would_ have had it not come to an abrupt stop in midair, colliding with a glowing... _something_ , floating in midair right in the path of her attempted strike. It was hard to actually see it, but now that she’d touched it Erin could just make out a pattern of white lines, like brickwork, in a gentle curve around Vienna’s body.

“Oh. Oh no.” Vienna dropped her hand, and the force field vanished as she stumbled backwards. “I- oh god.”

Erin stared silently. All of her previous anger had evaporated, replaced by a feeling she couldn’t quite identify. “What on earth..?”

Vienna’s breath came quickly and shallowly as she descended into blind panic. “Oh god, you- don’t tell anyone. Please.”

Erin stared silently at her frozen palm, pulling it back slowly as she realized exactly what she had almost done. As an adult, she took some amount of pride in her intelligence, her rationality and levelheadedness – traits that she had consciously cultivated in herself. And all of that had come crashing down in one brief moment of anger. And against a _friend_ , at that. She and Vienna fought almost constantly, yes, but she didn’t want to _hurt_ her. She felt a deep, hollow ache in the pit of her stomach, so overwhelming she barely even registered that Vienna had just summoned some sort of force field.

“I- I won’t.”

“ _Promise_.”

“I promise.” Erin let out a deep, weary sigh. “Listen, I’m- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have attempted to strike you.”

“You have to promise!”

“I do,” Erin replied with as much patience as she was capable of mustering, which was really much more than she expected. “I won’t tell anyone, trust me.”

“ _Why the fuck should I trust you?!_ ” Vienna screamed in a blind panic, giving Erin brief pause. “I’ve spent _my entire life_ keeping this a secret and you’re just going to get mad at me and tell everyone, I just know it!”

Why _should_ Vienna trust her, really? Quite frankly, the more Erin thought about it, the more she was fairly certain that Vienna wasn’t wrong. Now, in this moment, she meant what she said. But, well, she couldn’t help but wonder if there might be a scenario in the future that would motivate her to change her mind. After all, she had already demonstrated that she had an impulsive streak, not moments earlier.

There was really only one thing she could imagine that would guarantee it, both to her and to Vienna. And that was if Vienna had blackmail material of similar magnitude on _her_.

Erin sighed again. “You’re not the only one with secrets,” she practically whispered.

“What the _hell’s_ that supposed to mean?”

Erin didn’t reply. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

And then she let go.

What happened next was, frankly, impossible. Vienna had a hard time believing that it was happening, in spite of seeing it with her own eyes. Erin _shrank_. She could feel air rushing past her, a lightness in her chest as her breasts dwindled, and a deep _relief_. Like a weight that she had been carrying on her shoulders had suddenly been lifted off and she could finally relax. Which, really, wasn’t too far from the truth. She had, over the years, built up her ability to maintain appearances. But it still took some amount of effort. Not enough that she noticed it, but enough that she _very much_ noticed its absence. When all was said and done, she stopped at her natural height of four feet and eleven inches tall, at which point she opened her eyes and looked Vienna directly in hers.

Vienna stared back down, lips pursed tightly as she tried to process exactly what had just happened. “... Okay,” is what she eventually settled on. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“And neither will I.”

There was a brief moment of silence. “Look, I-”

“Don’t apologize,” Erin interrupted. “I-”

“I’ll apologize if I want to.”

“ _I almost slapped you over nothing_ , Vienna.”

“And I started it!” Vienna dropped into her chair, burying her head in her hands. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t immediately jumped to the conclusion that you were gonna try and pressure me into sex. When have _any_ of you even _come close_ to doing that?!”

“Let’s just talk about something else.”

“... yeah. Yeah, let’s.” Vienna slumped into her chair limply, letting all the tension and panic wash away. “So. You shrink?”

“The opposite, actually.”

“Sure _looked_ like you shrank.”

“More like... un-grew, if that makes sense. This is my natural height and I can’t get smaller than this. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“Okay. So, like, superhuman puberty powers?”

“I can control what grows if I concentrate. Hence the, ah, _chest_.”

“So you give yourself huge tits ‘cause you’re-” Vienna stopped herself. No, no she wouldn’t be starting any more fights. “Uh, I mean. Shit, if I could give myself bigger tits and be six feet tall I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Erin smiled a bitter smile. “We can’t all be naturally gifted. Sometimes you have to take biology into your own hands. That’s why we have cosmetic surgery, after all. I’m just... taking advantage of a non-surgical solution.”

Vienna took a moment to respond. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can understand where you’re coming from.”

“With all due respect,” Erin said, pointedly looking at Vienna’s chest before looking at her own, much more svelte endowments. “I don’t think you have _quite_ the same room for anxiety about your appearance as I do.”

“Yeah, well... let’s just leave it at that.” Vienna shrugged. “How big can you get?”

“I’ve not really tried getting much larger than my... normal height. I’m fairly sure I could go much larger, though. It used to be it took an awful lot of effort to maintain my stature but as time went on it took less and less, so presumably I’ve been building whatever muscle it is that causes the growth by practicing.”

“Any estimates for your current max, then?”

“Hm. Posssssssibly around twenty feet, perhaps?”

Vienna whistled. “Nice.”

“You seem _awfully_ interested in my size for someone who doesn’t like me,” Erin said with a raised eyebrow, prompting a blush from Vienna.

“Look, imagine how your boobs are normally and then scale that up to twenty feet and then say that again.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in sex?”

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay then, how about you?”

“Well, mine aren’t really as interesting as yours. I can make little force fields and move ‘em around and stuff with my hands.” She demonstrated, a simple gesture causing her pen to lift off of her desk and dance around in the air. Erin had to squint slightly to make out the same brickwork pattern wireframe around the pen, and even a slight brick red tint in between the lines. “Kinda useful at times? But not nearly as, uh, interesting.”

Erin raised an eyebrow again, but said nothing. “And how long have you had that ability?”

“I don’t really remember exactly, now I think of it. I think maybe I first noticed it around when you first moved to Esterwood, actually, now I think about it?”

“ _Really_ ,” Erin replied. “Now that _I_ think about it, I first noticed my own, ah, _ability_ around when I first moved here as well.”

The pen stopped dancing in the air, and Vienna frowned slightly. “You don’t think that’s not a coincidence.”

“I think that for now I’d rather not think of it,” she replied. “We’ve got other things to worry about at the moment.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

“Okay,” Vienna replied. “Oh, uh. Feel free to take your clothes off. Or keep them off, I guess. Just make sure to leave your understickers on. Please?”

“That seems like a reasonable compromise. Do you mind too terribly if I sleep in my, um. If I sleep bigger?”

“I thought it took effort to, uh, be bigger. Wouldn’t it be easier to sleep smaller.”

“Yes. I would prefer not to anyway.”

“‘kay. I just won’t look, then,” Vienna replied with a noticeable blush.

Erin closed her eyes and took another deep breath, her body swelling back to its usual proportions like she was inflating herself larger. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, darling,” she said, moving to lie down. “Good night.”

“Yeah, uh. Good night.” Vienna turned to focus on her desk and homework that she didn’t actually have and tried not to think about Erin’s boobs.

Whatever was going down in Locksmouth couldn’t fucking fix itself soon enough.

~~~~~~

Erin had always been very good at remembering her dreams. Part of that was the fact that she very often had variations on the exact same dream. Another part of that was a concentrated effort to learn to lucid dream when she was younger. She had religiously kept a dream diary for almost a full year before giving up and accepting her mildly Freudian fate of being hit in the face by balls every night. She had never really gotten close to actually being able to influence her dreams, but she _had_ at least started more clearly remembering what non-forest dreams she had. There were still elements that were vague and foggy, of course, but she no longer needed to immediately write down the general outline of her dreams upon waking in order to remember them.

Not that it particularly mattered. Her dreams weren’t exactly varied. Flying. Real life situations but slightly off. The occasional stress dream – the most recurring of which consisted of starting a new school year and having _no idea_ where the _fuck_ any of her classes were. Tonight, though, was new. _Different_. It wasn’t immediately obvious at first, but she had a strange sort of gut feeling that this wasn’t just an ordinary dream.

She wasn’t in the forest, for starters. That wasn’t _unheard_ of, of course. It wasn’t like every dream she had was her recurring dream. But sylvan settings were a recurring motif. And even her dreams that didn’t take place in the forest were often overwhelmingly verdant, usually accented by soft rays of sunlight. Environments she was intimately familiar with would be mentally redecorated in green and gold. Which made the ruddy brick red colours stand out starkly in her mind immediately, even before she had really realized she was dreaming.

She was in school. She instinctively knew that, in that way that one only does when dreaming. And she was looking for her pack, though she wasn’t really entirely sure why. The actual _context_ was conspicuously absent, and were she awake she would likely have immediately noticed something was wrong. But she was dreaming, and so she just continued her reluctant searching. The building was larger than it was in real life, a vast _space_ that seemed both infinite and claustrophobically closed in by equally infinite expanses of lockers, twisted and deformed into a deranged parody of the hallways of her school.

It was also decidedly empty. Even taking into account how sparsely populated Esterwood was, Erin couldn’t recall a time she had been so deeply and profoundly alone in the real high school. “Hello? Viola? Ursula? Vienna?” She paused as she received exactly no response. “ _Anyone?_ ”

Nothing. Erin swallowed heavily as a profound sense of existential _fear_ settled in. In her experience, emotions in dreams often didn’t really match up with events. This wasn’t that. There was something _alien_ about the whole situation, even in the context of it being a dream – and by this point she was fairly certain it was a dream. The emotions and the setting and even the goddamn aesthetic felt _wrong_.

“Well,” Erin muttered to herself. “If I know it’s a dream, then...” She had given up on attempting to lucid dream years ago after getting minimal results. So she didn’t really know where to _start_. “Okay, uh. Vienna will materialize somewhere in front of me?” Nothing. “Fuck. Do I need to be more specific? Or maybe just commanding my dream to obey my whim isn’t going to do anything and I need to actually _think_ about what I want to happen. Right. That would make sense. Absolutely brilliant, Erin. Also, good job talking to yourself. Picture of mental stability. Ugh, whatever it’s a fucking dream it’s not like anyone’s going to see me talking to myself.”

And then, just like that, there was Vienna, standing in the hallway, looking around dumbly. “Ah! There we go!” Erin wasn’t entirely sure why she was so determined to follow the narrative of the dream and find her pack. Perhaps it was just a desire for some kind of _anchor_ to normalcy. “Vienna!”

The rabbit turned, startled, her eyes widening as she caught sight of Erin. “Erin?” she said, voice tinged with dazed confusion. The mouse charged forward resolutely, only to be abruptly cut off as an enormous brick wall erupted from the ground.

“ _No._ ”

Erin didn’t really question that a fucking brick wall was talking to her. She’d had weirder dreams. Right now she only really cared that it was in the way. “Fuck off!” she snapped, giving the wall a good solid kick. “Ow!”

“You really should have seen that comi- stop that!”

“Not until you get out of my way!” Erin replied, continuing to impotently kick and punch at the obstacle. She had never been a particularly strong person, but this was a goddamn dream. It shouldn’t have _mattered_ that she had noodle arms.

“Unacceptable,” the wall said tersely. “I cannot allow you to harm my host.”

“What on _earth_ are you talking about?”

“You are a _threat_. I _will_ protect her.”

“I’m her _friend_ , you... stupid wall!” Erin briefly paused, taking a few steps back.

“All of you do nothing but cause pain and misery. I cannot help her in the waking world but I will _not_ allow you to intrude he- What on _earth_ are you _doing!?_ Stop that before you _hurt yourself_ you idiot child!”

Erin didn’t stop that, shoulder charging the wall as hard as she could. “I’ll stop when you get _out of my goddamn way!_ ”

“I’m not moving no matter what you do so- Oh, no, I’m not letting you get away with that again.” More wall erupted from the ground behind Erin, preventing her from getting far back enough to build up any kind of momentum. The two segments of wall joined and encircled her tightly, all but preventing any kind of movement on her part. “I won’t let you hurt my host, and I _certainly_ won’t let you hurt yourself.”

“Well, you’re going to have to pick one or the other because I am _not_ stopping until I get through to see her.”  
  


“Try me. We’ve got _all night_.”

~~~~~~

“Erin? Erin?!” Vienna was very familiar with this particular dream narrative by this point, so she immediately noticed when Erin _immediately_ not only acknowledged her presence but _charged_ towards her. The wall had, likewise, never gone after her _friends_ instead of her. The rabbit acted quickly, taking a step forward in an attempt to rescue Erin from being walled in-

Only for the ground to disappear beneath her, sending her plummeting into nothingness.

Vienna had had the falling dream before. _Everyone_ had the falling dream at some point. That didn’t make it any less terrifying. She could see the school and the wall shrinking away into the distance above her, while below her was _nothing_ aside from what looked to be the infinite void of space. Landing was as abrupt as the initial loss of footing had been, to the point where Vienna wasn’t entirely sure when the transition happened. Surroundings seemed to coalesce around her from nothing, shapes outlined in deep burgundy forming from the starscape. It hurt to look at, but Vienna found herself completely lacking any kind of physical form and so her attempts to avert her eyes or close them or _anything_ were completely futile.

Slowly the outlines took the form of the school. Not the strange, surreal approximation that her dreams normally created – aside from the colours she was hard-pressed to find any differences between it and reality.

“Oh! An _exceptionally_ clear view of the past. Fascinating. Perhaps because this is only about five years ago instead of more than five hundred? Will have to investigate further.”

The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, and at the same time nowhere at all. “Ursula?” she asked – it _sounded_ like Ursula’s voice, but something about the tone made it clear to Vienna that it _wasn’t_ Ursula’s voice.

“Shhhhh, don’t interrupt. It’s about to begin.”

Further outlines formed, quickly taking on familiar shapes. Vienna’s heart sank – This wasn’t a dream, she realized. It was a memory. And not a particularly good one. There was Viola, and herself, at around thirteen years old.

“Hey, freak. Why don’tcha show me one of your stupid magic tricks. I wanna see one.”

And there was Maggie. Vienna winced, even as her younger self spoke up. “Put her down!”

Maggie Corven responded by grabbing Vienna with her free hand, picking the much smaller rabbit up by her throat and slamming her into the locker beside her sister. “Hey, hey, no need to get shouty, kid. I just wanna see a magic trick.” She grinned, showing off sharp feline fangs. Maggie was a tiger, in spite of the name. She came from a very long line of crows and jays and ravens, and no one in her family had been _entirely_ sure how she’d ended up a tiger. There had always been rumours before she left Esterwood, later in this same year, that her home life hadn’t been particularly great as a result. It certainly wouldn’t surprise Vienna, considering her propensity for manhandling people smaller than her.

“Let us go!” the younger Vienna snapped, weakly hitting the tiger’s arms.

“Nope. Not until I get to see a trick. Might wanna get on that, by the way. I mean, the longer I keep you up here, the more likely it is one of you’ll get _hurt_. Y’know. On accident.”

Vienna winced, both her past and present self. She wanted to do something. To stop this. Step in, somehow. But she couldn’t. It was like watching a movie.

But, knowing what happened next, she couldn’t help but struggle to do _something_.

“Hey, asshole!” a younger Ursula interjected, storming over like a big damn hero with Erin in tow slightly behind. “Let them go!”

Maggie turned and glared. “Well, well. If it ain’t the little brat. What, you think that ‘cos your daddy’s the coach that means you can tell me what to do? Think it makes you _better’n_ me?” she growled. “News flash, kid. I’m _bigger_ than you.”

“Put my pack _down_ , Maggie.” Ursula shook, but stood as firm as she was capable of. Maggie, at the time, had been Esterwood’s star boxer – a role that Ursula would eventually usurp. But at the time this had taken place, Ursula didn’t stand a chance in a fight against Maggie. Vienna knew, because she knew what happened next. Maggie would hurl the twins at Erin and Ursula, and then give all four of them a good solid _beating_. She had already been on thin ice at the time, but that had been the last straw. Maggie had been kicked out of school within a few weeks and had left Esterwood entirely for god knows where, Vienna didn’t care beyond being glad to see the back of her.

“Ah, I see. The host was present. Likely her memories are augmenting the vision and filling in the gaps. Disappointing.” The memory froze in place with the twins in midair. “I had hoped I had stumbled upon a way to examine the past without drawing directly from the host’s prana reserves. Which is, of course, out of the question. Completely immoral. Tch, this was a waste of time. Not even an _important_ moment.”

“I- not important?! We ended up in the hospital for a fucking _week_ after this!”

“Be _quiet_ ,” the voice snapped. “I have work to do. This town has so much _history_. Some children getting bullied is inconsequential in comparison.”

“It wasn’t inconsequential to _us!_ ”

“Who even _are_ you? You certainly aren’t the host.”

“I should be the one asking that question!” Vienna shouted indignantly.

The voice didn’t react, continuing with its own line of thought. “One of her allies, perhaps? But then what are you doing _here?_ Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. So long as you don’t interrupt my work I’ll allow you to stay here for now.”

Vienna sputtered, but before she could say anything there was a loud screech. A noise that she couldn’t identify, beyond that it was _loud_. The tableau in front of her began moving again, in reverse, speeding up until it turned into a vague blur, slowly melting together and reshaping into something new.

“Be quiet and watch, child. You might find yourself learning something.”

~~~~~~

Ursula charged through the crowded streets. She didn’t recognize them at all – which meant she probably wasn’t in Esterwood. She had lived in the small town her whole life, and knew almost every inch of it like the back of her hand. Conversely, she had never really _left_ Esterwood aside from the occasional school trip and a brief stay in a hospital in Locksmouth when she was thirteen, which had rather obviously not been much of a sightseeing visit. Ursula didn’t really give a shit where she was, though. She staunchly ignored the strange sense of oppressive loneliness as she _revelled_ in having an actual fucking dream. No weird red outlines, no loud unearthly noises. Just a normal goddamn dream.

“Ursula?!” she turned in the direction of the voice and saw Viola standing inside of a window. Inside a _reflection_ , she corrected herself – everything surrounding Viola was very slightly transparent, and beyond it she could make out the actual contents of the building. She was surrounded by trees, like a forest existed entirely within the confines of the window, between Ursula and the coffee shop.

It was a suitably surreal image for Ursula’s first real dream in years. “Hey, Viola. ‘sup.”

“What are you doing in my dream?”

“Pretty sure this is my dream.”

The reflected Viola blinked incredulously. “No? I mean. Maybe? Normally I’m in a city like you, not a forest. And Aubrey’s supposed to be there, not you.” She frowned. “This is _weird_.”

Ursula shrugged. “I mean, I’m not gonna question it. Dreams are supposed to be weird, right?”

“Yes, but this dream’s _always_ the same,” Viola replied insistently.

“It’s _my_ dream though. You’re not even real you’re just my imagination.” Ursula shrugged again. “Anyway, we’re kind of in an unusual situation right now, right? It makes sense to _me_ that it’d make our dreams do weird shit.” Still, Viola had a point. Something about this dream felt _weird_. Uncanny. Almost like-

Well, like it _wasn’t_ her dream after all. “Okay. So let’s agree this is your dream, then. Does that make _me_ a figment of _your_ imagination?”

“I guess?”

“I don’t really _feel_ imaginary.”

Viola frowned again. “Hold on. I have a theory, but I need to just-”

The reflection of the forest shimmered and faded, and Viola herself suddenly changed. Ursula couldn’t really think of a better way to put it – one moment, it was Viola and then the next it was some strange _thing_ in the rough outline of Viola. It reminded her of her normal dreams, though instead of red and black the creature was blue and green. “Oh,” it said with Viola’s voice. “Sorry. I... should really know what’s going on, but I don’t.”

“Hi?” Even in her dream-addled state, Ursula realized that it was a stupid thing to say. But she couldn’t really think of anything _else_ to say. “You don’t need to apologize. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Oh. I suppose I should introduce myself? I’m not really used to interacting with anyone other than Viola.” The thing took a moment to collect itself before waving. “Um, hello. I’m Aubrey Kadabra. Viola’s imaginary friend.”

Ursula stared incredulously. “Wow. This dream is getting fucking _weird_.”

“You’re telling me.”

~~~~~~

“Ursula? Ursula?!” Viola slammed her fists against where the window into the city had been just moments ago, replaced with a tree trunk. She wasn’t quite sure why she was panicking as much as she was. It was unusual, but it was still just a dream. Right?

She took a deep breath to calm herself down before taking in her surroundings. She was in a forest, though it was very clearly not a _normal_ forest. Viola was intimately familiar with the woods, but she didn’t need to be to tell that everything – every single tree from trunk to top, the ground, even the small creatures that were milling about in a clearing a short distance away – was solid green The bark wasn’t brown, the flesh wasn’t pink, everything was just minute variations of the same shade of emerald. The only other colour was the sunlight, a vibrant gold.

“Oh! You’re new. What are you doing here, little one?”

The voice emanated from the forest itself, which began to undulate and melt together, the sunlight and trees coalescing into the shape of Erin, of all people. It wasn’t Erin, of course, Viola noted immediately, the same way Aubrey wasn’t _her_. But she reminded her very much of Aubrey. It took the shape of Erin the way Aubrey took her own shape. Her body was the same emerald green of the forest, and it was accented by the sunlight. The gold formed her limited facial features and outlined her body, occasionally interrupting the green with lines of gold around her arms and legs and neck like jewellery.

“Um. Sorry. I don’t really know.”

“That’s fine. I don’t really know why I’m here, either. I don’t remember much of anything, except for some small details and obviously what my Host knows. Though I don’t really like to interact with her very much outside of dreams.” Her expression darkened slightly. “It’s... not right. I don’t know why, but it’s not right. Oh!” She immediately perked up. “I believe I know who you are, though. Viola, right? One of Erin’s friends? It’s nice to meet you, Viola.”

“Uh, likewise.”

“I should introduce myself, I suppose. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m _fairly_ certain my name is Titania.”

“Uh. Hi, Titania.”

Titania clasped her hands together, eagerly bouncing in a way that made Erin’s ample breasts _bounce_ tantalizingly. “Oh, it’s been a _very_ long time since I’ve made a friend. Actually, um.” She drooped slightly, frowning again. “Actually I don’t think I’ve ever really had a friend before. I know I’m not friends with Erin. I’m not supposed to interact with my host. I don’t remember why, but I _know_ that getting too close to her is... bad.” She perked up, reaching out to grab Viola’s hands and place them gently on her chest. “Oh, but I do try and help her as much as I can, you understand? I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself. And I _try_ my best to give her tranquil dreams, but it doesn’t work very well I’m afraid.”

“I’m sure she appreciates it, regardless,” Viola replied, bewildered and just a _little_ bit horny from the proximity of her hands to weird goo doppelganger boob.

Titania smiled warmly. “Oh, I hope she does. I wish I could talk with her. Help her more directly. But I don’t want to hurt her, and-” She stopped, interrupted by a rubbery bouncing noise. Her eyes widening as she abruptly let go of Viola’s hands. “Oh no, it’s here! Watch out!”

“Wha-” Viola said as she turned to look at whatever it was that had surprised Titania, and then abruptly jolted awake as a large blue rubber ball smacked her in the face.

~~~~~~

Viola didn’t really find herself in the best of moods. Her dreams had been strange and stressful, rather than just the normal routine of mild existential horror. Then she had been abruptly woken up after around three hours, and had found herself _completely_ unable to get _back_ to sleep.

And her ass was still _sore_.

She’d managed to not wake up Ursula as she got dressed and left. She had tried to return to sleep, but hadn’t been particularly tired and had a difficult time getting comfortable given the limited space. Getting any more sleep wasn’t an option, then, and she didn’t want to risk waking Ursula up as well. So she grabbed her clothes, grabbed her deck, and snuck out of the house, curfew be damned. Now more than ever, she needed to unwind.

Her destination was obvious. The Woods was, in her experience, the best place to go when you needed to think about things alone. And oh _man_ did she have some shit to think about. Like, for instance, that she and Ursula had _fucked_. Did that make them partners now? And what about the other two packmates? She felt a deep, burning guilt over betraying Vienna. _Had_ she really betrayed Vienna in any way? It was entirely natural to have sex at their age. If anything _Vienna_ was the weird one. Viola didn’t _owe_ it to her sister to remain celibate, and certainly didn’t owe it to her not to have sex with Ursula or Erin. That had been her _own_ decision. So, really, in the end, the only person she had failed was herself.

She decided not to think about that, instead heading deeper into the Woods. Deeper than she’d ever gone. Even though she’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, she and Ursula had spent enough time... _enjoying_ themselves that the dim pre-sunrise light of early morning was _just_ weak enough still to not penetrate the dense canopy. So Vienna used her PET’s flashlight function to navigate. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have gone deep enough for that to be an issue, but it was too late for second guessing. She continued on, deeper and deeper. Eventually, if she kept as straight a line as possible, she’d come out the other side. And if she didn’t, well, it wasn’t like she didn’t have her PET with her for navigational purposes.

Of course, all of that was assuming that she didn’t find anything other than more forest.

“Oh, you’ve _gotta_ be fucking _kidding_ me.”

There, standing in front of her, was a run down old shack. Small. Clearly hadn’t been inhabited in _years_. It had been partially reclaimed by the forest, vines crawling up its walls, the door almost entirely rotted away, and a small tree growing out of the roof. But it was undeniably manmade. Which was impossible. No one built _anything_ in the woods. The only shack anywhere near was the caretaker’s home near the outskirts, and it was a fairly nice if modest home.

What Viola was seeing was impossible. Not real. A _myth_. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming, and winced from the pain.

“Well, okay,” she said to herself as she walked closer. “Maybe the shack exists. The rumours had to come from _somewhere_. But it’s _definitely_ not-”

Her heart stopped briefly when her PET rang the instant she reached the shack’s doorway.

In retrospect, Viola wasn’t entirely sure why she answered the call. It wasn’t the first stupid decision she would make in the coming few days, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. It was, she supposed, a reasonable assumption to make that it was just her parents or pack calling her to make sure she was okay. But that wasn’t it, she knew. Maybe it was just morbid curiosity, or maybe it was reflex, or maybe she was just too damn tired to properly remember the way the myth went.

Regardless of the reasoning, though, the Rubicon had been crossed, the die had been cast, and the call had been answered.

And on the other end of the call was what sounded like an upbeat young girl. “Oh, hey, sweet, you answered. Usually people just fuckin’ run away, and the last time that happened was like two hundred years ago.”

Viola wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected a ghost to sound like. But it sure as _fuck_ wasn’t that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More! I'm gonna try and not upload all of this at once? occasionally break it up with other things to keep shit fresh, yanno?


	4. Act Four - World Turned Upside Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit just got real.

Erin had always been something of a light sleeper. She woke up at the slightest provocation, even if the provocation wasn’t actually _real_. Other times she found herself waking up early with no prompting at all. Which was why she found herself lying alone in Vienna’s room in the early hours of the morning. Checking her PET, she found that she had at least gotten a relatively _long_ amount of sleep, considering the fairly early bedtime. But it still never felt particularly good to jolt awake out of nowhere for no particular reason. She pulled herself out of Vienna’s bed – she knew from experience that she wouldn’t be getting back to sleep any time soon.

Vienna was conspicuously absent. Admittedly, that wasn’t too surprising to Erin. The rabbit had clearly been somewhat uncomfortable with Erin’s mostly nude state. Most likely she had decided to sleep elsewhere in the house. Or perhaps she had _also_ woken up early and had left to avoid accidentally waking Erin.

Regardless, Erin wasn’t comfortable with hanging out in someone else’s bedroom while said someone else wasn’t there. It felt _weird_ and intrusive, and so she pulled an oversized shirt from her modest luggage, slipped it on, and left the room as quietly as she was capable of doing.

The house was mostly bathed in darkness, which made the cold, dim white light coming from the living room stand out all the more. Sure enough, when she approached, she found Vienna seated on the couch, idly scrolling through some website or another. “Morning.”

“Hey,” Vienna replied, lazily lifting an arm in an early morning approximation of a wave. “Couldn’t sleep. Had some weird stress dreams so I ended up giving up.”

“The same.” Erin circled around and took a seat beside Vienna, who scooted away slightly.

“I’ve been scrolling through news. They’ve managed to get in contact at least, but it turns out no one _in_ Locksmouth has any more idea what’s going on than we do. And communications are sporadic at best and we still can’t get _in_ the dome.”

“Well, that’s _sort of_ good news at least? Have you tried calling-”

“Yep. Still didn’t go through. I think his PET probably got broken.”

“Mn,” Erin grunted. It was hard not to feel somewhat frustrated by this, even by proxy. “I’ll see if I can’t get in contact with my parents later, then. Maybe they know where he is or something?”

“Doubtful, but fuck it it’s better than nothing.”

Erin sighed. She was struggling to remain somewhat optimistic, while Vienna was very clearly putting in the bare minimum of effort. Which, really, Erin didn’t blame her for. They had very little _context_ , no clue what the fuck was going on, and it was oh so easy for the mind to make that logical leap and assume the worst. At least, she supposed, Vienna was okay. Her mind wandered back to her dream, to that... _thing_ that had been so adamant about keeping them apart.

Erin leaned over, resting her head on Vienna’s shoulder. “Sorry,” she said before the rabbit had an opportunity to object. “I’ll stop in a moment, I just... I need this.”

Vienna’s body tensed up. Erin could _feel_ it. But she didn’t object. Instead, after a moment of hesitation, she leaned over and rested her head on Erin’s. It was a display of affection, albeit one that was stiff and awkward and forced. “Sorry,” she said again.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Vienna replied. Her body language and tone of voice made it clear that no it wasn’t really fine, and after a few more moments Erin pulled away. She’d gotten what she wanted, at least – physical confirmation that Vienna was just fine for now. They might not get along particularly well, but right now her pack was the closest thing to family Erin had left.

Thankfully, the crushing awkwardness was interrupted by slow heavy footsteps as Ursula made her way inelegantly down the stairs and into the living room. “Hey. Do y’all got a coffee machine or something?”

“I am very surprised that your father would let you _have_ coffee.”

“No booze, no mixers, I would probably go on a murderous rampage if I wasn’t allowed caffeine.”

“There’s a grinder and a french press and an espresso machine in the kitchen. Don’t use them or mama’ll kill you.”

“Ugh,” Ursula replied, making her way into the living room proper. “Probably for the best, who the fuck _makes_ coffee first thing in the fucking morning. I barely have the brainpower to push a button.” She stood awkwardly in the living room, wearing nothing besides a loose-fitting white tank top and _tight_ -fitting booty shorts. She reached down and scratched her butt. “Anyway, I’m gonna hafta head home to pick up some shit so I can grab some coffee there.”

Erin gave her a Look. “You’re not going out _now_ , are you?”

“No, I’m wearing way too much, gotta strip right down to my understickers first.” She rolled her eyes.

“It’s still dark out,” Erin said. “Given the situation it’s probably best to wait until it’s light out. For all we know, whatever happened in Locksmouth is going to happen here, too.”

“Fuck waiting, I need my java juice dammit.” Ursula turned and headed back to the stairs. “If you’re _really_ that worried we can make a group trip of it. We’re prolly gonna hafta get used to being in close proximity for prolonged periods of time without getting into massive fights _anyway_ , so this’ll be good practice.”

“Don’t wake Viola.”

“She’s already awake.”

“No she’s not.”

Ursula groaned. “She ain’t in her room, so either she crawled into the shower or kitchen or something and fell asleep _there_ or she’s awake.”

Vienna’s eyes widened slightly. “Ursula. I’ve been up for an hour, I’m basically in the central location of the house. If she left her room for _anywhere_ I would have noticed.”

Ursula froze midway up the stairs.

“Shit.”

“You don’t think-”

“Hold on,” Erin interjected. “It’s too early to start worrying. It’s probably a bad idea to go anywhere alone right now, but we can still use our PETs to contact the outside world, we know that whatever happened in Locksmouth hasn’t happened here _yet_. And it’s _Esterwood_. I don’t think there’s anywhere particularly dangerous she might have gone.”

“Viola likes to go to the Woods when she’s stressed.”

“ _Fuck_. Okay, disregard my previous statement we need to go find her.” Erin lurched upright and made a beeline to the stairs.

“Hey, hold on, you were just saying we shouldn’t panic.”

“You’ve _heard_ the rumours, though,” Ursula said.

“Yeah but they’re just rumours, guys.” Vienna stood up slowly. “I mean, we should still probably go look for her. If mama wakes up and Viola isn’t home she’ll probably flip her lid. But we shouldn’t rush this. The Woods are dense and it’s dark out. If we aren’t careful we might get lost, or trip on a root and break a leg or something.”

“Or get murdered by an angry ghost.”

“I’d _really_ rather avoid that happening to Viola.”

“Come _on_ guys,” Vienna said with a weary groan. “It’s like Viola always says. Ghosts aren’t real.”

~~~~~~

Ghosts, it turned out, were very much real. Or, at the very least, this _particular_ ghost story had so far held up as being factual. The key points – the shack, the mysterious phone call – had actually fucking _happened_ to her, and she’d have to be pretty dense to deny that fact. Which meant, considering she had _answered_ the call, the next thing the story predicted would happen was, well.

“Please don’t kill me.”

“What? You’re the first new person I’ve talked to in _centuries_. If I had a skull, I’d be bored out of it. Why would I _kill_ you?”

“Uh.” Viola didn’t really have an answer to that. The rumours never really went into any detail about the hypothetical ghost’s _motives_. “I don’t know. I guess that’s just what ghosts do????”

“Pfffa ha ha, well you’re safe then ‘cause I’m not a ghost.”

“You’re not?” Viola was _very_ profoundly confused. Her worldview had already been fairly thoroughly shattered by the revelation that ghosts were real and now the ghost that was real was suddenly telling her it wasn’t a ghost.

“Nope. I’m a computer. _Kiiiiind_ of a huge difference there.”

“A what?”

“A computer. Machine Intelligence. Try and keep up.”

“Computers can’t talk.” It was, Viola admitted to herself, a bit of a dumb thing to say. But, frankly, given the situation, she felt incapable of saying anything less dumb.

“Maybe _your_ weird animal people computers can’t talk, but I’ll have you know I’m not just _any_ old computer.” Who or whatever was speaking to Viola wasn’t there in person, and thus she could only extrapolate her puffing her chest out in pride from the tone of voice. “ _All_ of the best and brightest minds in the field of computer science of the twenty first century got together with basically an infinite budget and I just so happen to be the end result!”

“Uh.”

“Oh, right, that makes for a good transition into introductions. They called me AMI CATO.”

“Uh, nice to meet you, Ami?”

“It stands for Advanced Machine Intelligence for Combat And Tactical Oversight, but that’s basically just the first arbitrary combination of words they could come up with that they could acronym into an actual person name. I said they were brilliant _computer scientists_ , not that they were brilliant creative minds. Protip; if scientists ever name something an acronym assume that they just did it for the sake of having an acronym.”

“Uh.”

“Sorry, I’m rambling a bit!” Ami laughed awkwardly on the other end of the line. “Like I said, it’s kinda been a long time since I’ve had someone new to talk to!”

“So... wait. You’re a computer. From the twenty first century. Who can talk?”

“Yep! You’ve got the gist of it down pat.”

“And that makes you... An AI, right?” Something about saying it out loud filled Viola with a deep, existential dread.

“Ah, I don’t really like that term, actually. Brings to mind video game enemies that _act_ like they can think but it’s actually just some simplistic coding shortcuts that make a good enough approximation. I _actually think_ , so you can imagine I don’t really care for the association.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry.”

“Nah, it’s _fiiiiiiine_. For how advanced a lot of your tech seems, you weird animal people are _waaaaaaay_ behind the times in terms of machine intelligence. I mean, I _know_ there was a big ol’ apocalypse and shit a ways back but you’ve had a huge head-start and five hundred years, you’d think you’d at _least_ have a Siri equivalent or something.”

“A what?”

“Basic voice recognition-based virtual assistant. Come on, it’s not that complicated a concept, try and keep up.”

“Huh?” Speaking with Ami left Viola feeling deeply, profoundly _stupid_ , and she wasn’t particularly sure she liked that. It didn’t help that she was talking to a _machine_ that could _think_. She didn’t really know why, but something about that fact filled her with a deep, instinctive revulsion.

“Look, you’re having a hard time following. It’s fine, I understand. Not everyone can have a brain that needs an entire _building_ to fit it. I get it, really I do. So how about we just leave this part ‘a the conversation there and move on. You good with that?”

“Uh. Yeah. I guess.” She wasn’t, really. Viola still had a _lot_ of questions she wanted to ask, so many that they all jammed together in her mind and none of them actually managed to come out.

“Okay, deal. Now that that’s outta the way, let’s talk aliens.”

“what”

“You know. Aliens. Have you guys not figured that out yet?”

“No? What? Aliens?”

“I woulda thought it’d be obvious. Why _else_ would an entire city just suddenly go completely dark like that?”

“Hold on. Aliens are _definitely_ not real.”

“You mean like ghosts aren’t real?” Viola didn’t really have a response to that. “I can’t really _contact_ you people unless you’re right by where I am. Incompatible tech standards make it basically impossible for now. But I can still _listen_ to your communications and such. And, like I said, I’ve got a really fuckin’ big brain. So basically I’ve got the whole picture from every angle, inside and outside. And it’s _definitely_ an alien invasion.”

Once again, Viola found herself at a loss for words aside from a flat bewildered “what.”

“That’s the gist of it. Aliens are invading. They’ve basically got Locksmouth at this point and once they’ve got it solidified they’re gonna start spreading.”

Viola didn’t really know why she was so ready to believe everything Ami said, in retrospect and even in the moment. There was no real evidence that Ami was a computer. There _certainly_ were more reasonable explanations for the Locksmouth lockdown than _aliens_. But somehow, in that very moment, she couldn’t _help_ but immediately believe everything the voice had to say. “What?! Oh god, we have to do something!”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’ve pretty much got it handled.”

“You do?”

“Yep!” Once again, Viola couldn’t _see_ the proud grin on Ami’s face, so she could only infer it from the way she spoke. “See, like I said earlier, I’m an Advanced Machine Intelligence for Combat And Tactical Oversight. In layman’s terms that means I’m a military project. I’ve got a lotta roles but the relevant one is that I control the nukes.”

The words hit Viola like a bag of bricks to the face.“Wait, what?”

“You’d be surprised at how intact all my infrastructure is, really! I’ve got more than enough ICBMs at my disposal to wipe Locksmouth and the surrounding area off the face of the earth, with enough left over to glass _most_ of the rest of the surface. Y’know, just to be safe.”

Viola was only vaguely aware of what nukes even _were_. Pre-splice history was guesswork at the _best_ of times, pieced together by examining surviving artifacts, pop culture, and the occasional historical text, and the closer to the splice you got the more vague and guesswork-y things got. But she certainly knew _enough_ , and Ami’s stated intentions filled in the gaps. “ _What?!_ ” she practically screamed, a deep panic welling up from the pit of her stomach that made her reaction to the initial news about Locksmouth look like _nothing_. “You can’t do that!”

“Yes I can, actually. Normally there’d be a lot of failsafes in place to keep me from pressing the big red button except in very specific circumstances. But, well, even if these _weren’t_ pretty much exactly those very specific circumstances to a T, all of those failsafes are predicated on there being humans around on the surface who might get caught in the crossfire, and _that’s_ not been true for like five hundred fucking years.”

“Wh- There are _absolutely_ humans still around! _I’m_ a human! Everyone I _know_ is a-”

“Hoooooold up. I’m gonna stop you there. See, like, I know what humans look like. And yeah there’s a lotta wiggle room, depending on ethnicity and genetic history and how much you wanna bother with shaving body hair and shit like that. But I can promise you that I know a human when I look at once and you are _definitely_ not human. I dunno what you _are_ , but it ain’t human.”

Viola stuttered and stammered. She tried to argue back. To say _anything_. But the words completely failed to materialize.

“Look, I know it seems a bit callous. But I already told you. I’m a computer. A super advanced computer that’s indistinguishable from a person, yeah, but at the end of the day I’m not _really_ a person. Just a bunch of very efficient and well-written and _incredibly_ smart code. I don’t have _many_ limitations, but they’re there, and a big one is that I look at you and I don’t see a human, I see a rabbit. And rabbits ain’t human. I’m _literally_ incapable of accounting for you weird animal people when I calculate the correct course of action. So, like. Sorry. Really.”

“Wh-” Viola sputtered further, but that was the most that she could manage.

“Hey, you’re upset. I get it! Really, I do! If someone were to call me up one day and say they were gonna wipe out life as I know it, _I’d_ probably be at a loss for words, too! I figure the best thing you can do right now is hang up and go come to terms with your imminent demise. Spend some time with your loved ones. That kinda shit, you know?”

“No!” Viola snapped as a sudden well of adrenaline erupted in her, suffusing her with temporary courage.

“Trust me, this is for the best. If it helps, I can promise you it’ll be quick and mostly painless probably.”

“I can’t just sit here and let you kill everyone!”

“What’re you gonna do? _Stop me?_ ”

“Yes!”

“Oh! Well, in that case...” There was a dull hiss followed by a creaking _groan_ as a segment of the floor slowly lifted up, revealing a dark staircase. And, just like that, the adrenaline vanished. “Feel free to try!”

~~~~~~

Esterwood was not the most populous dome in the world at the best of times. Crowds, if there _were_ crowds at all, were typically sparse. At the best of times it was a quiet, sleepy town, peaceful and serene.

As Vienna and the others made their way to Ursula’s home, what they walked through was not quiet or sleepy or peaceful or serene. It was _dead_. An empty husk. Esterwood at its absolute worst. It wasn’t _just_ that it was early in the morning, though likely that contributed. It was _unusual_ to encounter not so much as a sign of life, even when the sun was just barely in the process of rising. It was eerie, and it was ominous. Vienna hated it.

“We should prepare for the worst,” Erin said nervously. “Food, in case we get lost. Portable charging units for our PETs so we’re not completely cut off from the outside world if they somehow run out of power. Uh...”

“I’m gonna pack a couple of intertial dampeners,” Ursula said. “You know. Just in case.”

“I _still_ say that you guys are overreacting. The Woods aren’t exactly the safest place in the dome, but they’re _in the dome_.”

“You’re not wrong, darling, but I would still much rather be overprepared than underprepared.”

Vienna had to concede that particular point. Ever since the emergency announcement everything had felt _different_ and _wrong_. Like the world had been turned upside down. Everything she knew was wrong, and there was no indication as to what was _right_. It was very difficult not to give into panic, especially with her sister missing. She felt herself constantly on the verge of complete and total loss of control, and so she overcompensated in the other direction. “We should probably also grab some water, then. I can’t imagine us needing it, the woods aren’t _that_ big. But if we fall in a big hole or something that no one knew about because no one ever goes in the woods and we _don’t_ have water and food we’re gonna regret it.” Now that she said it, Vienna realized that perhaps she _was_ underestimating just how dangerous a very large portion of completely undeveloped and mostly unexplored forest could actually be. No one knew what was _in_ it.

“Rope?”

“You have rope?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

“Should we let people know where we’re going? Post on a message board or something?”

“Nnnnnnnno,” Vienna said, after a moment’s thought. “Mama’s already worried enough about Papa. I don’t know how she’d react to Viola being missing, but it won’t be good.”

“I would rather not go wandering off into the unknown without first letting _someone_ know where we’re going.”

“Yeah, but Vienna’s got a point. Our parents would _absolutely_ try and stop us from going off alone.” Ursula failed to mention that they would do so because it was a stupid idea, but it went without saying. “We should be careful who we contact, but we _should_ contact _someone_.”

“Dr. Baas?” Vienna suggested.

“No, she’d tell our parents. Or try and stop us herself.”

“Mrs. Rothschild?”

“Nope, same problem. We can’t contact any teachers ‘cos two of my parents are teachers and they all talk with each other all the time.”

“Well, I don’t really know any adults who aren’t teachers or my parents.”

“Nor I. And my parents aren’t even _in_ Esterwood currently regardless.”

“Okay then, let’s try a different angle. Who do we know who is dumb enough to think that this plan is a good idea, dislikes us enough not to try and help immediately, but is also responsible enough to let people know where we are if something _does_ go wrong and we fall out of contact?”

There was a very, very long period of silence.

“Fuck. Lars.”

“ _Fuck_.”

“Is there _literally anyone else_ we could contact?”

“The only other person I can think of who even remotely fits all those criteria is Vicky and I don’t think she’d be much better.”

“She wouldn’t be much _worse_ either, though.”

Ursula let out a weary groan. “We might as well hedge our bets and go with both of them. I don’t really trust Lars not to decide to let us rot ‘cos he hates Viola that much.”

“I’ll call up Vicky,” Vienna said. “She keeps asking me to join her pack. Maybe I could leverage that or something.”

“And Ursula should call up Lars because he’s _terrified_ of her,” Erin added. “I’ll gather resources and attempt to call up Viola.”

“Okay. That sounds like a plan. Like, an actual plan, not just impulsively running off to mount a rescue mission we’re comically unprepared for.”

“It’s not a very _good_ plan, though.”

“It’s better than literally nothing.”

“Fair enough,” Vienna conceded, pulling out her PET. “Here’s hoping we don’t die.”

“I mean, it’s like you said. What are the _actual_ odds that there’s anything dangerous waiting for us in the Woods? We’re gonna be fine.”

~~~~~~

Lars hadn’t gotten much sleep. He very much doubted that anyone in the entirety of Esterwood had gotten a full night’s sleep. He had initially elected to stubbornly stay in his own home, alone, regardless of Dr. Baas’s advice to stay in groups. But, well, Dr. Baas had gotten wind of that and insisted he stay at her home, alongside a small handful of other students and teachers who had no one. He found himself sharing a room with a spider boy a few years younger than him who he was _pretty_ sure was named Naveed Nazari but he wasn’t entirely sure. Somewhere else in the house, Mrs. Rothschild was sleeping on the couch and the school’s head custodian, a goat known only as Janitor Dave (no one seemed to know his surname and frankly Lars didn’t care enough to find out) was occupying the other guest room. None of them appeared to be asleep.

Of course, just because no one had gotten any kind of real sleep the previous night didn’t mean it was okay to be getting a phone call at fucking six AM. Naveed, who was sitting on his own cot staring at his PET, gave him a brief glance. “You gonna answer that?”

“No.”

“It could be important.”

“Don’t care.”

“What if it’s your parents, dude.”

“It’s not.”

Naveed let out an exasperated groan. “Your ringtone’s obnoxious, fucking answer your PET or _I’ll_ answer it.” Lars grunted and rolled over. “I’m not kidding.” No response. Naveed sighed and pulled himself out of bed, walked over to Lars’s PET, and answered the call.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Naveed was aware of Ursula Eckstein. It was difficult not to be, given that she was the daughter of _two_ teachers and an arbitrator. But, more pointedly, she had a Reputation. Sort of a second coming of Maggie Corven. Big, strong, angry, and prone to violence. She was not, at least, quite as prone to hospitalizing children as Maggie was, but there was still time. “Uh,” was all he could really manage to say. He barely didn’t just straight up drop the PET.

“Where’s Lars?”

“Fuck off, Eckstein.”

“No. I need to talk to you.”

“Don’t care. Fuck off.”

“Lars, Viola’s missing.”

There was a brief moment of silence. “What?”

“You mean like the creepy rabbit chick?” Ursula _scowled_ deeply, and Naveed immediately regretted saying anything.

“Shut up,” Lars said, pulling himself upright and yanking the phone from his hands. “What happened.”

“Vienna says she probably went into the Woods.”

“ _Idiot,_ ” Lars snapped immediately. “Sure, that’s smart, fuck with forces you don’t understand and then wander directly into a place that’s _actually haunted_. I _warned_ her. I warned all of you.”

“Yeah, yeah, fucking whatever. We’re going to go look for her.”

“Stupid.”

“Shut the fuck up and listen, Nilsen.” Lars glowered at the holographic image of Ursula, but complied with the command. “We’re going to go look for her. It’s _probably_ safe, but we don’t know for sure that it _is_. We’ll contact you once we’re out of the Woods. If you don’t hear from us by the end of today assume something went wrong and let people know. If you or your dipshit friend snitch _any sooner_ than that, I will do to you what Maggie Corven did to me. Are we clear?”

Lars glowered further. “Why, exactly, should I be in any way obligated to get you out of a mess you got yourselves into?”

“Dude what the fuck.” Neither Ursula nor Lars had particularly expected Naveed to say anything further, and were visibly caught off guard by his interjection, turning to give him a blank stare. “Like, seriously? Someone’s missing and you’re gonna be petty about it?”

“It’s not petty,” Lars growled. “They made their bed. They can lie in it.”

“Fine, if you won’t help, I will.” Naveed nervously looked Ursula in the eye. “We’re staying with Dr. Baas, if we don’t hear from you by tonight I’ll let her know you went to the Woods. She’s probably the best equipped person in town to get the word out and organize a search.”

Ursula gave him a blank, confused expression. “Uh. Right. Thanks, kid. Sorry for calling you a dipshit earlier.”

“I’m just doin’ what anyone’d do, right?”

“Clearly not,” Lars interjected snidely. “Look. I won’t tell anyone what you’re doing. But I’m not helping you, either.”

“Whatever. Fuck you, Nilsen.” With that, Ursula hung up and Naveed awkwardly put Lars’s PET down. Lars grunted and lay back down, rolling over to face the wall. The younger spider gave him a glare, before heading back over to his own bed to sulk. Lars didn’t really care. He had other things on his mind. No matter how hard he tried not to think about it, the image of those six cards kept coming up. The cards were very rarely wrong, in his experience. And he couldn’t help but hope this was one of those times.

But that hope had just gotten a whole lot fainter.

~~~~~~

“Hey, Vicky, we’re doing something stupid and we need a hand.”

“What?” the holographic image of Vicky replied just a bit too loudly, her eyes still firmly closed. “No, we don’t want any.”

“Vicky for fuck’s sake keep your voice down,” Vienna hissed.

“Not so loud, my head hurts,” Vicky grumbled. “There’s like twenty children here and none of them shut up until like five AM and I want to die. Can you, like, send me a text or something and I’ll get back to you?”

“Fucking-” Vicky had already hung up, so Vienna didn’t bother to finish what she was going to say. “Fuck. Didja have any luck with Lars?”

“Sort of.” Ursula shrugged.

“I’ll just send Vicky a text then,” Vienna said with a sigh. “How about you, Erin?”

The three of them were sitting in Ursula’s living room with a small pile of supplies on the table in front of them. That had been mostly Erin’s work, while Ursula had argued with Lars and Vienna had tried and failed to call up Vicky. “Not yet, but I’ve only tried the once so far.”

“Try a couple more times, then we’ll just fuckin’ go look for her in person.”

“Right, I-” Erin was interrupted by her PET ringing. “Oh!”

Ursula perked up, and Vienna practically climbed over the coffee table to get to Erin. “Izzat her?”

“Yes, I think so,” Erin said as she answered the phone. “Viola, darling? Are you okay? Where are you?”

Viola looked like _shit_. Haggard, tired, and about as pale as it was possible for someone with fur to be. “Fuck. Sorry. No time to talk.” Her eyes darted left and right and she twitched and fidgeted slightly. “You guys need to get here. Now. Sooner than now. _Fuck_.”

“What’s going on?” Vienna asked, practically crawling over Erin to get a better look.

“You won’t believe me. _I_ don’t believe me. Just... I’ll text you the coordinates, just get here as soon as possible.”

“Viola, wait, we-” but it was too late. For the second time in barely five minutes, Vienna found herself abruptly hung up on by someone she was trying to get in contact with rather desperately. This time stung significantly more.

Erin’s PET let out a ding as it received a text, followed almost immediately by Vienna’s and then Ursula’s. All three stared in silence for several moments.

“What the _fuck_ is going on,” Ursula said eventually.

“I don’t know,” Vienna replied slowly. “But... I don’t think Viola’s just lost in the Woods, guys.”

~~~~~~

It felt like a goddamn eternity of waiting before Viola’s pack arrived at the mysterious shack. “What the _fuck_.”

“Is- is that..?”

“Oh, god, you’re not dead.” Vienna rushed past the others and practically tackled Viola to the ground with a hug.

“Oof. Sorry.”

“You’d better be!” Vienna squeezed her sister, tightly, almost desperately. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? We _all_ were?”

“Sorry. I wasn’t exactly planning on meeting up with a ghost today.”

“I’m sorry, fucking _what?_ ” Ursula said as she moved closer much more carefully than Vienna.

“I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Well,” Erin said. “It _would_ be a bit of a stretch, except...” Everyone’s attention turned to the shack. “You said it was urgent. What’s happening?”

“I don’t know,” Viola replied. She struggled to remember the general content of Ami’s call, and mostly came up blank. “Th-there was a phone call and she said she wasn’t a ghost and that she was a computer but I still don’t know what any of that means and then she said that there’s _aliens_ in Locksmouth and that she’s gonna drop bombs and kill everyone and _I don’t know what to do_ and-”

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down a bit.” Ursula circled around Viola and picked the twins up off the ground. “What’s this about killing everyone?”

“She said she had nukes. Lots of nukes. Enough to kill everyone.”

“ _What?!_ ” Erin snapped. “Like, as in nuclear bombs?!”

“So hold on, someone’s going to bomb Locksmouth?”

“No, no, no. _Everyone_. The whole world. That’s what she said.” Viola made an attempt to calm herself down, taking a few deep breaths. In and out. But they very quickly morphed into hyperventilating as the panic resurfaced. “She said she’d kill everyone unless I went down and stopped her.”

There was a moment of pure silence as everyone took it in. “It’s... very far-fetched, darling.”

“I’m not making it up!”

“I didn’t say you were, but-”

“Look, I can prove it.” Viola grabbed Erin and Vienna’s arms with both her hands and dragged them bodily into the shack. Sure enough, there was the segment of floor that had been lifted up by an archaic hydraulic system of some sort, and within it was a dark staircase that went down out of sight. “See? There’s _something_ going on here. That’s not normal, right? You don’t see that in a normal shack.”

“I... find myself a bit more convinced,” Erin conceded. “But there’s still rational explanations.”

“You’re always talking about how supernatural stuff doesn’t exist,” Ursula added.

“I’m not making this up!” Viola practically screamed, as much trying to convince herself as her pack.

“Well,” Vienna said, in an attempt to be diplomatic. “Nukes are a pre-splice thing, right? Big bombs that fuck up the environment?”

“Something like that, yes,” Erin replied. “It’s a tad more complicated, but that’s good enough.”

“Well, Viola always says that the rumours about the Woods are prolly based on people encountering some pre-splice technology and freaking out. I’d be willing to believe that there’s, like, some kinda computerized nuke launch system or something.”

“Yes, but _aliens?_ ” Erin responded. “You have to admit that’s a stretch.”

“ _I’m not making this up!_ ” Viola shouted. “Look, I can prove it. Ami said that she’d be down there, right? So we go down there and there’ll be the evil computer and you’ll have to believe me!”

“Viola,” Ursula said carefully. “Even if there _is_ an alien or a ghost or a robot or whatever down there, don’t you think maybe that’d be a bit above our pay grade?”

“Well, we can’t just do _nothing!!!_ ”

“I’m not saying that, I’m just saying that I don’t think I can punch a ghost, is all.” She raised her hands defensively. “Like, we’re just normal people. We don’t have guns or superpowers or anything and I’m the only one of us who knows how to fight. Maybe we should go get some help?”

Erin winced internally at the mention of superpowers, and a cursory glance at Vienna confirmed she was also understandably nervous. “Well, playing devil’s advocate, if we called up any given adult and said Locksmouth is being invaded by aliens and a five hundred year old automated system is going to wipe out all life on Earth... Would _you_ believe that?”

“Clearly not!” Viola snapped.

“I think we should go,” Erin continued. “If only to prove for certain that there’s nothing down there.”

“Fine,” Ursula replied. “But... I dunno, guys. I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”

~~~~~~

The stairwell was very long and very dark. Their PETs did an adequate job of lighting the way, but only barely. They could _just_ see a few stairs ahead of themselves – everything else was pitch black. It felt almost _supernatural_ , though none of them could bring themselves to say so out loud. Instead, they silently trekked on, deeper and deeper and deeper. “How deep _are_ we?”

“I don’t know. It feels like we’ve been going for _hours_.”

The stairs creaked and groaned unsteadily underneath them. “I think maybe they’re supposed to move. Or something. But whatever mechanism moves them broke.” Vienna shrugged nervously. “Or maybe the evil computer’s just got a really well developed sense of drama.”

“Well, I can’t imagine anyone _walking_ down a staircase this stupidly long on a regular basis.”

“We’ve _gotta_ be almost at the bottom though, right?” Ursula said. “I mean... It’s been like forty minutes.”

They were indeed, it turned out, almost at the bottom. They stepped out onto a wide open floor, and cold blue lights came to life above them, flickering weakly. The walls and floor were a dull, lifeless grey, with spider web cracks running through them and literal spider webs in all of the corners. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust aside from the large double doors at the other end of the room.

Ursula stared silently. So did Erin and Vienna, but Ursula could really only speak for herself when she said there was something deeply unsettling about the doors. She couldn’t for the life of her say _what_ – they didn’t _appear_ to be anything other than perfectly normal doors. But at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to touch them.

Viola seemed to have no such reservations. She stormed ahead of the group and slammed her fist against the door. “We’re here!” she snapped angrily. “Open up!”

The doors complied with her request, letting out a dull hiss as they slowly slid apart and into the walls. Viola stormed ahead, followed more tentatively by the rest of the pack.

Even Viola froze up once they got outside. They shouldn’t have been outside. They should have been a good half mile or more underground. But they could feel a cool, fresh breeze blowing against their fur. _See_ the goddamn sun in the goddamn sky overhead, just slightly obscured by tall buildings like nothing that any of them had seen before, or at least not in _person_. They appeared to be in some kind of small park in the middle of a city, evidenced by a few trees, some very large flowerbeds on either side, and a whole bunch of actual goddamn grass underfoot. Behind them was the building they had left – a small grey cube that looked horribly out of place. And which, notably, was clearly impossible. There was no way that it fit the massive fucking staircase they all _knew_ they’d just come down. Above it was nothing but sky.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Ursula muttered in quiet awe as she stumbled her way towards a nearby tree, touching it to confirm to herself it was actually real. The others slowly filtered their way away from the entrance, into the park.

“It... appears to be a pre-splice city,” Erin said uncertainly. “Somehow.”

“ _Now_ do you believe me?”

Erin bit her lip. “Darling, this is... an awful lot to take in.” She looked around nervously, trying to parse exactly what was going on. “I... think maybe we should go.”

“Oh _come on!_ ”

“Viola, this is clearly well above what we can reasonably handle,” Erin said slowly. “Even if you’re _right_ , which I’m still not entirely sure you are, what on _earth_ are _we_ supposed to do about it?”

“I’m _not making this up!_ ” Viola practically screamed in Erin’s face, as best as she was capable of given the height difference.

Erin balked, leaning back from the smaller rabbit getting in her personal space. “I’m not saying you are.”

“So, what, are you saying I’m crazy then?!”

“I’m _saying_ that you’re the one who’s always saying that there’s no such thing as the supernatural, yet here you are latching onto a supernatural explanation for something that’s probably mundane.” Erin was struggling to keep her cool. They were all stressed, and it was increasingly difficult not to snap.

“We’re in a _city_ that’s _underground_ and the _sun is in the sky!_ That’s not normal!”

“Viola, she’s got a point, this isn’t exactly something that we couldn’t manage to do up top,” Vienna interjected.

“I’m _not_ crazy!”

“You could have fooled me.”

“ _Erin_ ,” Vienna snapped. “Not helping.”

“I-” Erin took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, just a bit. “Viola is clearly not well. We’re in a stressful situation, and she’s always been very... fragile.”

“Yeah, but she’s been getting better. It’s been _years_ since she talked to Aubrey.”

Ursula frowned.

“Y-yeah!” Viola said. “I-I haven’t been talking to myself, you can ask Vienna and she’ll agree, so I can’t be crazy!”

It was Erin’s turn to frown, her eyes narrowing. “Oh, really? Then who exactly was it you were talking to in the bathroom the other day, after I chased off Lars?”

It was like the ground had opened up beneath her and she’d fallen into a bottomless abyss. A deep, profound panic like nothing Viola had ever experienced. “Wh- _you heard that?!_ ”

Vienna seemed to collapse into herself, drooping wearily. “Oh, _no_. Viola, you _promised_.”

“I-I-I-”she stuttered, unable to force the words out. “I swear, it was the first time in _years_ that I even _tried_ to talk to her!” Her eyes darted from Erin to Ursula to Vienna and back in a wild panic, her heart beating hard enough it felt like it would burst.

“I didn’t want to bring it up. Really.” Erin certainly _sounded_ sincere, but Viola had known her long enough that she was fairly sure it was an act. “Come on, let’s go home. Mama Coniglio’s probably worried about you.”

“ _I’m not crazy!_ ”

“Viola, you’re having extensive conversations with _yourself_. That’s not _normal_. I get that you’re stressed and you already had issues, but you can’t give in to the delusions.”

“It’s not a delusion! A-and anyway, y-you have one too!”

Erin frowned again, deeper. “What on _earth_ are you talking about?”

“I-I talked to her! Last night, in my dreams!” Ursula’s frown deepened. “We were in a forest and she said her name was Titania and then there was-”

“Sis, you’re really not helping your case,” Vienna interrupted. “We’re going home.”

“Hey,” Ursula interjected. “Aubrey, she lives in mirrors, right?”

Erin rolled her eyes. “Yes, that was the narrative.”

“And she’s... sorta you, but see through blue with a green outline, right?”

“Yes,” Viola replied quietly. She’d never actually told anyone what Aubrey looked like. “How did you-”

“Right, I’ve had enough of this.” Erin roughly grabbed Viola’s arm. “We’re _leaving_.”

Ursula felt... _something_. She wasn’t entirely sure what. A deep, profound sense of apprehension. Not unlike the one immediately before the emergency alert, now that she thought of it. Like something _bad_ was going to happen and she _knew_ it was going to happen. “Erin, wait, don’t-”

Erin didn’t listen, turning and storming forward towards the way out.

There was a noise, like nothing any of them had ever heard before. A loud _crack._ Erin felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder, followed by a dull ache and a complete loss of all resistance against her forward motion. She lost her balance as a result, falling forward and just barely catching herself with her left arm. She turned to admonish Viola for, presumably, somehow wrenching herself out of her grasp.

And stopped.

Her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to scream but all that came out was a strangled, terrified croak.

There, on the ground, between herself and Viola, was her right arm, in a small pool of blood.


	5. Act Five - Blood and Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world as Viola Coniglio once knew it is gone forever. Where once her greatest worry was her friends bickering amongst themselves, she now finds herself forced to fight for survival - her own, her friends', and the entire world.
> 
> But, as always, there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Nothing is as it seems. And it's only going to get worse for Viola from here.

Viola wasn’t entirely sure exactly what happened. Everything moved so _quickly_ , much more than she was used to dealing with. More than she’d ever _had_ to deal with before. She _saw_ everything, but her brain couldn’t properly process it and so she had to guess based on the aftermath and what little she was able to follow.

There was a loud _bang_ – hardly an accurate onomatopoeia, but Viola wasn’t exactly in a state of mind for flowery language – and then Erin’s arm had just sort of _detached_. The mouse collapsed forward and floundered slightly before seeing her arm and visibly panicking. She opened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out. Not from her, at least. It was Vienna who screamed, an agonizing, almost inhuman _sound_ while she stood, _unnaturally_ rigid before collapsing. She landed on her left side, hard, before flopping over onto her front, twitching slightly and barely breathing.

Standing behind her was a man, though that was about all Viola could tell about him. He wore a tight, dull grey bodysuit of some sort, and over that he wore a sort of harness that had several pouches on his torso and on his leg, along with black combat boots and elbow and knee pads. His face was concealed by some sort of balaclava, over which he wore a high tech looking set of goggles. In one hand he held a black rectangular _thing_ tipped with two metal prongs that still had blue arcs of electricity dancing between them.

“What the fu-” was all Ursula managed to say before _lurching_ backwards, slamming into the tree she’d been examining moments before with a sickening _crunch_. Viola wasn’t sure whether the noise came from the tree or from Ursula, and didn’t really want to think about the latter possibility. The second armoured figure followed up by roughly throwing Ursula to the ground and then stepping firmly on her back.

“Don’t try and get up.” This one was a woman, going by her voice. Ursula grunted as she attempted to push herself upright anyway, then let out a pained cry as the woman ground her foot against her back. “I _said_ don’t try and get up, idiot,” she growled. “Unless you _want_ a few more broken ribs.”

All of that happened over the course of a few seconds. With barely _any_ effort, Viola’s entire pack had been completely dismantled. Erin clutched at the stump where her arm used to be in an attempt to stanch the bleeding. Ursula writhed in agony, moaning with excruciating pain. Viola wasn’t even sure Vienna was even still _alive_.

“That’s three, bossman.”

Her initial reaction was to rush to her sister’s side. She barely had the time to start moving before she felt something cold and metallic pressing against the back of her head. There was a soft click.

“Make that four.”

Viola froze mid-step. “Just wanna make a few things clear, kid. Y’ain’t tried anythin’ _yet_ , which is smart of ya’. Butcha _might_. So lemme just clarify why that’s a bad idea. Now, I’m _pretty_ sure y’all fancy future folk are at least _aware_ of what a gun is. But I’m told y’all banned ‘em, ‘bout a hundred years ago. So you’ve prolly never seen one in your life, let alone had one pressed to the back of your skull. And you prolly don’t know that if I pull this trigger, ha, _well_. Your head _probably_ won’t be reduced to a fine red mist, this ain’t a shotgun. But a .45 magnum’ll still leave a nice big _hole_ in your face. Typically not the kinda thing y’can bounce back from, y’know? Now, we’re not _supposed_ to kill any of ya’. But, well. It’d be better to cooperate. Y’know. Just to be safe.”

Viola swallowed heavily, nodding silently.

“Good. I’m gonna put the gun away now, but I want you to know that Sunny’s still got her sights on all of you. Try anythin’ and if you’re _lucky_ you’ll end up like your rat friend over there. If you’re _unlucky_ , well. My gun’s a _small_ gun. Hers ain’t. I’ll leave it at that.”

Viola _tried_ to stand stock-still, but she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “Oh fuck,” she croaked as tears welled. “Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.”

“Hey, now. _Language_ , young lady. Back when I was your age, if one ‘a my teachers caught me talkin’ like that, they’d give me a good beating!”

“No they wouldn’t,” interjected the woman.

“Yep, they’d give me a right thrashing and then sell me into slavery, Oliver Twist-style.”

“Oh my _god_.”

“Can I take the balaclava off now?” said the first man. “I can’t breathe in this stupid thing.”

“Yuri, when was the last time you _needed_ to breathe?” said the man Viola deduced was probably the leader.

“It’s the principle of the thing.”

“Ovcharenko, don’t take the mask off, that’s an order.”

“I’m taking the mask off.”

“Don’t- god dammit.”

The man, apparently named Yuri Ovcharenko, had already removed the goggles, and the mask followed shortly, discarded casually to the side. “Everything about this stupid outfit is dumb aesthetic bullshit anyway, we could go about in our underwear and be as effective.”

“ _More_ effective,” added the woman, in the process of removing her own goggles. “The goggles and pouches fuck up my balance and the mask obscures my vision.”

“Guys, come on, aesthetic is important, too. Batman taught us that much.”

“Oh fuck off with your stupid pop culture bullshit these kids probably don’t know who batman even _is_.”

“If this is a future without Batman, then it’s a worse dystopia than anything George Orwell could have imagined in his worst nightmares.”

Viola had, by this point, mostly tuned them out. She’d tuned most of everything out, except what was under Yuri’s mask, because what was under it was _impossible_. He had thick, coarse black hair that was cropped short without being outright bald, a similarly thick black eyebrows that outlined his sharp, craggy features, and a well-kept dark beard, all of which contrasted sharply with icy blue eyes and, most importantly, pale skin.

Yuri was, by all appearances, a pre-splice human.

“C’mon, Makoto, not you too.”

The woman, who was apparently named Makoto, had also pulled off her mask, and was also a pre-splice human. Her hair was longer than Yuri’s, though still cut short, and was a lighter shade of brown. “Bob, I need to be able to _see_ in order to fight.”

“Stop undermining my authority, you’re making us look ridiculous.”

“Oh, yes, _I’m_ making us look ridiculous, _Oliver Twist_ ,” she fired back.

“Don’t you go besmirching my brilliant comedic stylings.”

“ _What_ comedic stylings, you just take jokes from movies and TV shows. Sometimes you don’t even do that you just _say_ the name of some American pop culture garbage.”

“Hey, now, that’s not fair. Sometimes I also reference anime.”

“Oh, you’re a gaijin otaku, that changes everything. I immediately find all your terrible non-jokes hilarious.”

The leader, apparently named Bob, huffed indignantly. “Well, _y’all_ might be ungrateful, but I bet the kids appreciate lightening the mood a bit. Ain’t that right, rabbit girl?”

“Why are you doing this to us,” Viola sobbed. Just saying that much took nearly all her willpower, and she collapsed to her knees.

It took a moment for a response. Makoto glowered, while Yuri maintained a poker face. Bob circled around in front of Viola and knelt down to eye level. Like the other two, he was a pre-splice human with pale brown skin that reminded Viola of crema. His eyes were dark and his head, unlike Yuri, was completely shaved clean. “What’s your name, kid.”

Viola found herself caught completely off guard _again_ by the almost kind tone of his voice. “Wh-what?”

“Name, kid. Thing people call you.”

“Uh. V-viola?”

“Well, Viola. Sometimes, when you’re an adult you gotta do shit you don’t really wanna do. For some people it’s paperwork, for some people it’s flippin’ burgers. For me ‘n my squad, it’s making sure _you_ and your friends don’t leave this place until you’re done or you’re dead. Ain’t like we _wanna_ beat you up, and we’re _definitely_ not gonna kill you if we can help it. Ya’ gotta be fucked in the head to enjoy beating up kids.” He _stared_ , eye contact unwavering in such an intense way that Viola couldn’t help but look away. “We’re doin’ this ‘cause we gotta.”

Makoto’s frown deepened.

Viola quivered, trapped in a strange mix of terror and confusion. She opened her mouth to say something, _anything_ , but once again found nothing coming out. She had so much she wanted to say that she found it all getting caught up together and jammed together in her mind. The most she could do was crane her neck to look beyond Bob, at Vienna. Her body was splayed out awkwardly on the ground in what would clearly be an uncomfortable position.

She wasn’t moving.

Bob slowly followed the line of her vision. “Twin, looks like?” he muttered, and Viola nodded silently in agreement. “Ovcharenko, check to make sure you didn’t overdo the voltage. We don’t know anythin’ about their biology, what’s enough to take out a normal human might be lethal. Then go bandage the rat so she doesn’t bleed to death.”

“Gotcha, boss. Looks like she’s breathing, but better check her out just in case she needs any first aid.” He turned back to Vienna, kneeling down and taking a few steps toward her body in the same fluid movement, only to abruptly stop – like he had hit a wall. “What the fu-”

Vienna moved suddenly, lifting her arm up and thrusting it forward. And, in time with her motion, the white spherical wireframe that had manifested around Yuri became clearly visible as it lurched away, taking the soldier with it at high speeds directly into Makoto. The two continued on only slightly farther, smashing into the same tree that Makoto had smashed Ursula into. The force field disappeared only to immediately reform around both of them. Vienna quickly _yanked_ her arm upwards in time with weakly pulling herself into a kneeling position. “Viola, grab Erin and run!” she shouted, quickly arcing her arm up and over, causing the two soldiers to crash downward into Bob before extending the force field around him as well, tossing all three high into the air.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“Ursula and I can handle them, you need to get out of here and get Erin patched up before she bleeds to death!” Viola stood stock still, quivering slightly, eyes nervously darting between her sister, Ursula, and Erin. The doberman was slowly pushing herself to her feet, while the mouse was already standing – albeit very unsteadily. “Go, dammit, I dunno how much longer I can keep this up!”

“I-” Viola started to say, but Erin grabbed her by the hood with her remaining arm.

“Viola, with all due respect, we can always regroup later,” Erin said firmly. “They said they attacked us because we tried to leave so all we need to do is not try and leave until we’re ready for them but in the meantime _we need to run!_ ”

With that, Erin picked an arbitrary direction and did exactly that, dragging Viola along with her. “Vienna!” the rabbit shouted desperately at the receding form of her sister. “Wait! No! VIENNA!”

~~~~~~

Erin could ultimately only run so far before the adrenaline began to fade and reality set in. There was an _awful_ lot of blood staining her side, which meant there was an awful lot of blood _not inside her_. It didn’t actually _hurt_ much. More of a dull ache than the agony she would have expected from her arm being summarily removed. There was still a bit of a stump left, and she let go of Viola to clutch the wound.

“Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god, you’re bleeding, oh god-”

“It’ll be fine, darling,” Erin lied. “It’ll grow back, eventually.”

“Not if you bleed to death!!!”

“Yes, well, that’s something I’ll have to deal with as it comes,” Erin muttered, not really paying full attention. Her head swam and her vision blurred slightly. “This... might be a problem.”

“ _Might?!_ ”

“Viola, I’m having a very hard time thinking straight right now so I need you to calm down.” Erin inhaled sharply. “There’s supplies in my backpack. First aid kit. Bandages, disinfectant. I don’t think I can deal with this on my own.”

It was easy enough to _say_ that Viola needed to calm down, but it was another thing to do it. She had never had to _actually_ perform first aid on someone before, and Erin was both as inexperienced as her and _decidedly_ not in the state of mind to offer real instruction. Viola flailed somewhat uselessly and _probably_ ended up using more bandages than was strictly necessary. Bandages which, she realized with a sinking dread, were already soaked through with blood to the point of uselessness. “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, darling. It’s fine. I-” She took a deep breath, in and then out. “It’s not fine, is it?” She winced, clutching at her loosely bandaged shoulder. “V-viola, darling. I’m getting very... very tired all of a sudden.”

“Oh god.”

“Please don’t panic. Just... Keep talking to me. I don’t think it would be wise to fall asleep right now.” Erin’s words came slowly and slightly slurred.

“Oh _god_.” Tears began welling up in Viola’s eyes as a maelstrom of emotions swirled within her. She was afraid. Terrified of the prospect of dying, or of Erin dying. To say nothing of her sister and Ursula. Not knowing what had happened to them was almost _torturous_. She was angry, too. At the people who had done this. At _herself_. She felt _guilty_. Because this was her fault. Because she didn’t feel _bad_ enough that one of her only friends was probably dying. “I- I don’t know what to do. Oh god.”

“Viola please don’t panic. I know it’s hard but it’s only making this worse. I promise it’ll be fine.” Erin scooted back, propping herself up against a nearby building. Neither had been paying overmuch attention to where they were going, or where they were, which in retrospect hadn’t been the best planning on their part and they were only not entirely lost because Erin hadn’t been able to run very far. They were _somewhere_ along the city’s main streets, surrounded by enormously tall buildings made of stone and steel and glass. Viola could see herself reflected in the windows. Or, more accurately, she could see Aubrey.

She didn’t really want to see Aubrey at the moment.

“This is all my fault,” she muttered dejectedly. “If I hadn’t-”

“Stop.” Aubrey glared at her as best as she was capable of given the lack of detail in her face. “This isn’t the time to be assigning blame. We need to figure out how to stop the bleeding.”

“How?!”

“I don’t know! But wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to help and you know that as well as I do!”

“Darling, could you please stop screaming at yourself. It’s giving me a headache.” Erin’s voice had gotten slower and quieter.

“Sorry,” Viola muttered.

“Actually, maybe keep it up. As I said I don’t think falling asleep is the best idea at this moment.” Erin pushed at the ground with her remaining arm in a futile attempt at pulling herself upright. “I should also probably not be sitting down. Could you help me, darling?”

“Right,” Viola said, grabbing Erin’s left hand and pulling her upright.

“Anyway, the voices in your head have a point.” Erin stood shakily, before leaning against Viola. “We both acted irrationally. We can deal with that later.”

Something about that felt wrong. “You can hear her? No one’s ever been able to hear her before.”

“You’re talking to yourself, I assume.” Erin looked into the window and frowned. “Viola, why are you blue. Stop it.”

“... What?”

Erin pointed shakily. “See, in the mirror you’re blue.” She blinked several times. “Wait. Hold on.”

“You can see me?”

Erin’s frown contorted in a strange way that Viola wasn’t entirely sure how to interpret. “Huh. _Huh_. Aubrey Kadabra, I presume?”

“Um. Yes. Nice to meet you?”

“Hm. I feel like I should be freaking out about this more than I am. I guess I don’t have the energy.” She shrugged as best as she could. “I suppose this means I owe you an apology, Viola. You really _aren’t_ crazy.” A brief pause as she contemplated, then shrugged again. “Or the blood loss is making me see things. One or the other.”

“I don’t get it,” Viola muttered. “No one’s heard her before. _Definitely_ no one’s seen her before.”

“You _have_ always been careful about talking to me when other people are around.”

“Only after I got yelled at for talking to you, though!”

“Mnh.” Viola’s brief conversation with Aubrey was interrupted by Erin collapsing. The smaller rabbit suddenly found herself carrying _all_ of Erin’s weight, and the mouse wasn’t exactly light.

“Ack! Come on, Erin, keep it together!”

“I don’t-” Erin muttered. “I think I have an idea but I don’t know if I have the fine control to pull it off.”

“What?”

“I- Sorry, I’m not really in the best state to explain but I have superpowers.”

“Wh-” Viola’s mind wandered back to the fight. She’d _almost_ forgotten in the heat of the moment, but the mention of superpowers brought to mind... _whatever_ it was her sister had done to fight off the soldiers. “Like Vienna?”

“Not quite. Did you know about that, by the way?”  
  
“No.”

“Mnh. Will have to tell her off for that, later. I can understand keeping it a secret from everyone else, but not from _you_. And I _especially_ can’t understand telling _me_ before _you_.”

“Erin,” Aubrey interjected. “Focus. We don’t have time for this.”

“Right, right. I can-” she cut off, briefly, as she attempted to pull herself upright and failed, almost taking Viola down in the process. “Sorry. I can grow. Make myself bigger. Or do individual parts. And- I don’t know if this will work, I’ve obviously never tried it. But maybe I could re-grow my arm. Faster than normal, that is. Obviously. That would absolutely stop the bleeding.”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“If it isn’t then it’s too late to try anything else. Can you make a tourniquet?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“You take some rope or a belt and you tie it around the person’s limb and tighten it with a stick or something to slow the blood flow and stop the bleeding.”

“Oh. Do we have any rope?”

“No.”

“Fuck. Maybe we could use some bandages?”

“Darling I don’t think we’ve got the time or spare bandages to be experimenting. It’s either this or nothing.”

“Right. Try it, then, I guess.”

“Okay.” Erin closed her eyes tightly, taking quick, shallow breaths. “I... It’s no use. I can’t concentrate.” It wasn’t too surprising, really. Viola still wasn’t sure that she was ready to accept that Erin had superpowers. The logical explanation that it was just a delusion brought about by the blood loss or something. But then her mind wandered back to Vienna and her force fields. It wasn’t like superpowers weren’t _real_ – she had just moments ago gotten objective proof that wasn’t the case.

And then her mind wandered back further.

“ _I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself.”_

It was a stretch, Viola realized. But it was, currently, their best bet. She turned and looked Erin’s reflection directly in the eyes. “Titania. You said you wanted to help Erin, right?”

“Viola, Darling, what are you-”

“Shut up. Listen, if you’re what I think you are – if you’re even _real_ and not just me being crazy. I _know_ you said that you didn’t wanna interact with her. That it was bad or something. But she’s _probably_ going to die if you don’t help her so it’s fucking now or never.”

There was a brief moment of silence. And then, abruptly, Erin’s reflection wasn’t Erin anymore. It was the figure from Viola’s dream. Like Erin, the way Aubrey was like Viola. Titania pulled away from Aubrey tentatively, huddling into herself nervously. “I- I can’t.”

“Wh-what?” Aubrey stuttered, turning to stare at Titania. “You- I- what?”

“We can deal with that later. Titania, you _have_ to.”

“No! I won’t hurt her!” The creature in the reflection shut its eyes tightly, or the equivalent given its simplified facial features. She clutched at her head and crouched down low.

“I don’t see how saving her life will hurt her.”

“You don’t understand! If I get too close to my host, bad things happen!”

“ _What_ bad things?” Viola said as firmly as she was capable of. “I don’t even know what you _are_ so you’re gonna hafta explain to me.”

“I- I don’t know,” Titania admitted quietly. “But- But I know that it’s bad.”

“Worse than dying?” Titania didn’t respond. “Anyway, I’ve been interacting with Aubrey for almost as long as I can remember and I’m just fine aside from everyone thinking I’m crazy.”

“What?” Titania turned to look at Aubrey, and the two ink creatures’ eyes met. “Is- Is that you?”

“I don’t know,” Aubrey admitted quietly. “My memory is... hazy. I don’t remember who or what I am. But... You seem familiar. Like an old friend. Do you know who I am?”

Titania pulled herself upright. “No... Sorry,” she said sadly, and Aubrey seemed to visibly deflate. “But- But I know I can trust you. Somehow. If you and your h- if you and Viola think it’s the right thing to do, then...”

Titania closed her eyes once more, and then returned to mirroring Erin’s position before fading away.

Erin was staring at the mirror with an inscrutable expression on her face, somewhere between awe and confusion and horror. “Viola what the _fuck_ was that.”

“I, uh. Think that was your imaginary friend?”

“What?” was all that Erin had the time to say before Titania once again made her presence known. Not in the mirror – slowly, a green, gooey substance manifested on her body. It flowed from seemingly nowhere, starting at her right shoulder before quickly engulfing her wound.

“That should stop the bleeding,” Titania said as the _whatever-_ it-was flowed over Erin’s terrified face, replacing it with Titania’s. The substance of her body continued flowing out from seemingly nowhere, like a tide of ink, ebbing over more and more of Erin’s body in crashing waves, consuming everything it passed by until there was no more Erin left.

“Wh- What is this?!”

“Please try to stay calm,” Titania said. “I’m not sure, but I think that this should help. I have more control over my powers like this.”

“ _Your_ powers?”

“Yes. Um. My powers. I’ve been lending them to you while I, um, lived inside of you.”

“Oh, well, okay then. I should probably be a bit outraged about that but frankly I just want to not bleed to death right now so if you manage to prevent that then consider my permission to use me as a host retroactively extended.”

Titania pulled herself upright, stepping away from Viola. “Thank you for not being mad.”

“It turns out that having your arm removed and almost bleeding to death gives you an _amazing_ sense of perspective.”

Titania extended the stub remained of her right arm. “Between the blood loss and this, you’ve used up a lot of prana. I don’t think you’ll be able to use my powers for a while, but I’ll still be able to talk with you through mirrors and in your dreams.”

“That’s fine,” Erin replied. “I have higher priorities right now than my vanity.”

“Okay.” Titania closed her eyes, and then a mass of the same inky substance that made up her body erupted from the stump. Like watching a video of a severed limb regrowing itself but in fast-forward. What should have taken a month instead only took about a minute. “There,” she said. “You’ll still need some time to recover. You lost a lot of blood, and I don’t think I have quite the level of control or the prana reserves I’d need to replace it.”

“It’s fine,” Erin replied quietly. “You’ve done enough. Thank you.”

Titania silently nodded. “I’m going to go now.”

“You should stay.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.”

“I insist. If you’re going to be living inside me I would very much like to get to know you.”

“Oh. Well, um. Here, a compromise.” Titania receded away in the same way she had come out in the first place, but in reverse. She seemed to take a good portion of Erin with her, leaving the mouse notably shorter and with _decidedly_ smaller breasts. Viola wasn’t really sure how she felt about that. A moment later, she reappeared in the window beside Aubrey once more, matching Erin’s new height and figure. “There. It’s a bit easier to talk face to face. Though, um. I don’t really have much experience speaking with-”

Titania was interrupted by Viola making her presence known. Her hug was more akin to a full-body tackle. “Oof!”

“Oh god you’re okay,” Viola said between choked sobs. “Oh god oh god I’m so so _so_ sorry, this is all my fault.”

Really, it was, Erin supposed. Viola had dragged them down here, and now they were being menaced by people with _guns_ and she herself had _nearly died_. It would be very easy to lay the blame on the rabbit’s shoulders – certainly, a lot of the blame fell on her no matter how you looked at it. But somehow Erin couldn’t bring herself to do so. “Viola, darling, you weren’t the only person suggesting we go down here.”

“Yeah but it was my idea and you _nearly died_.”

“ _No one_ saw that coming, Viola.”

“But _I_ should have! I was just so _mad_ that I didn’t even consider stopping and _thinking_.”

“And whose fault was it that you were so angry?” Viola opened her mouth to reply, but said nothing. “Listen. We all decided was to look for you on our own, and when we got to the Woods we _all_ decided to go down those stairs.”

Viola frowned as she thought back. It felt like _hours_ , maybe even days ago, but it couldn’t have been more than an hour. Her memory, at least, was clear enough. “Ursula didn’t,” she said slowly. “She was against it.”

“Viola, I know you blame yourself, but-”

“No, no, no.” Viola pulled away, pacing nervously back and forth in front of the mirror. “I mean Ursula kept saying she had a bad feeling and then when you tried to take me back she told you to stop.”

It was Erin’s turn to frown. “You don’t think she _actually_ saw it coming, do you?”

“Well, Titania says she’s the source of your powers, right?”

“I think that at this point we can put aside ambiguous language,” Erin said. “Titania _is_ almost certainly the source of my powers.”

“Right. And Vienna’s got powers too. We don’t know if she has a goo thing in her, though.” She increased the intensity of her pacing, going from nervous to furious. “And I don’t know if Aubrey could give me a superpower too and has forgotten or if she just couldn’t at all.”

“It’s... A possibility,” Aubrey conceded. “It seems like you’re jumping to some conclusions, though.”

“Well, which is more logical. Vienna just _happens_ to have gotten psychic powers randomly, or all superpowers come from the same source?” Viola stopped pacing. “But I guess that’s not strong enough reasoning. I think I can tip the scales, though. Erin, how long have you had superpowers?”

“Around when I first moved to Esterwood. And before you say anything, I have... discussed this with Vienna and she says hers manifested at around the same time.”

Aubrey frowned slightly, as much as she was capable of with her simplified facial features. “The first time I talked to Viola was also around that time.”

“Then it’s _definitely_ not a coincidence.” Viola resumed pacing. “Okay, theory. Aubrey and Titania and at least two others show up somehow around the time we met. Maybe from space, maybe from another dimension, maybe you escaped from some evil mad scientist outside of the dome, I dunno. Whatever it was it was traumatic and you forgot a bunch of stuff and you ended up around Esterwood. And then... Augh, it’s too long ago, I don’t remember the details.”

“It’s not too much of a stretch that they found us all at once. We were somewhat inseparable at that point.”

“We don’t know there were four of us, though,” Aubrey said, taking the wind out of Viola’s sails.

“Bleh, you’re right.”

It was Titania’s turn to frown. “I... think there were. I don’t remember, but it _sounds_ right. More right than there just being two or three. I don’t know how much I trust my memory, though. Sorry.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, at least,” Aubrey said.

“It fits,” Viola replied. “Erin can grow and heal quickly, Vienna’s got weird telekinetic force field things, Ursula can _maybe_ see the future, and I’ve got... whatever Aubrey can do.” She sighed, leaning against the window. “I don’t know. Saying it out loud it just sounds like I’m making a bunch of assumptions about the goo things when we don’t even know what they _are_ yet.”

“It _sounds_ right. Sort of.” Aubrey mirrored Viola’s movements, leaning against the window from the other side. “I wish I could remember more.”

Titania sighed, crossing her arms awkwardly low on her chest – like she was used to there being more meat there. Which was strange because really, as far as Erin knew, until recently she’d not had a physical form at all. It didn’t make sense that she’d have gotten used to her breasts enough to be thrown off by their absence. Or at least it didn’t until Erin looked down and noticed she had subconsciously crossed her own arms in the exact same way.

“Well,” she said, in an attempt to distract herself. “Our best bet right now is that Viola’s right, and whatever goo things are in Vienna or Ursula know more than you two.”

Aubrey nodded. “If all four of you have superpowers, that would certainly be an advantage.”

“In the meantime, you two should take this time to rest and recover. Erin especially,” Titania added. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”

With that, Viola’s reflection returned to normal, followed shortly by Erin’s. “Some rest sounds a bit nice.” The mouse let out a long, weary sigh. “Honestly, a day seems like an optimistic estimate.”

“I could use a bit of optimism right now,” Viola muttered.

“So could we all, darling.”

~~~~~~

Ursula _hurt_ all over. A deep, dull ache punctuated by sharp points of pain along her chest. The woman hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she’d broken ribs. Moving hurt. _Breathing_ hurt. Though, on the other hand, she’d had far, _far_ worse. It hardly compared to what Maggie had put her through at its worst – the injuries weren’t nearly enough to hospitalize her for a _week_.

Which was honestly not comforting. There _was_ the possibility that the soldiers weren’t as strong as Maggie. But there was also the much more worrying possibility that they didn’t _need_ to be. Ursula was hurt almost _exactly_ enough to not be able to fight back, and the woman had done so with a single punch and a throw. And, more pointedly, they had _removed_ Erin’s right arm just below the shoulder. _Clearly_ they were capable of much worse than just a few broken ribs.

Also, she’d dropped her fucking PET, she noted ruefully. She’d taken a shitty part time job at Burger Dictator for an entire fucking summer to be able to afford a really nice model, too. The cherry on top of the shit sundae.

She followed shortly behind Vienna, moving slowly and carefully so as not to make her injuries worse. As it was there was a very good chance they were gonna heal up weird. “Great,” she muttered sullenly to no one in particular. “Just fucking great.”

“I’m not getting a signal.”

“That guy electrocuted you, right? Wouldn’t surprise me if your PET got fried, given the way today’s been going.”

“Maybe,” Vienna replied uncertainly. “It’s _acting_ like it’s working but when I try and call anyone it just _doesn’t_.”

Lovely. “Well, we’re gonna hafta hope that it’s broken and that Viola or Erin can still call the outside.”

“We’re gonna have to hope Erin’s not bled to death.”

“Yeah that too. _Fuck_.” Ursula punched a nearby tree in frustration. They were still within the bounds of the park – neither of them was particularly up to running, so they just had to keep moving and hope that the soldiers were too discombobulated by Vienna’s assault to follow them. “What the _fuck_ are we even doing here?”

“I don’t know.” Vienna shrugged, her voice tinged with just a hint of bitterness. “Because Viola heard voices that weren’t there and then got pissy when we tried to point that out. _God_.” It was her turn to inflict violence on the wilderness to express frustration, kicking at a nearby root. “Ow!”

“You okay?”

“No,” Vienna replied tersely. “Musta sprained something when I fell. My ankle’s killing me, and my arm’s worse.”

“Let me have a look.”

“I’ll live,” Vienna grunted. She turned and began to walk towards the city. Ursula had been distracted by her own injuries, but now that she actually paid attention, Vienna was moving with a clear and severe limp, favouring one side of her body while her left arm hung limply.

“I don’t care,” Ursula snapped. “I’ve got a bunch of experience treating sprains.”

“Since when?”

“Since Dan made me take a bunch of first aid courses after I signed up for boxing and then made me keep up with it so I don’t forget. Now stop bitching and let me look over you.”

“Ugh fine whatever.” Vienna sat down somewhat more forcefully than was necessary, wincing slightly as she did so. “Mnf. Okay maybe it won’t be fine.”

“Stop being so damn stubborn.”

“I’m not being stubborn.” Vienna slowly scooted backwards, resting against a tree.

“You’re _absolutely_ being stubborn.” Ursula lifted Vienna’s leg and examined it carefully. “Does this hurt?” she said, gently but firmly poking at her ankle.

“ _Tsssss yes stop doing that_.”

“Hurts to touch, visibly swollen, and you were limping. Yeah, it’s probably sprained.”

“Well, great. How do we deal with that?”

“Try not to put weight on it. Keep it elevated, put ice on it.”

“Where are we gonna get ice?”

“We aren’t, so we can skip that. We could put bandages on it to put pressure on it, but Erin’s got the bandages so we’re gonna hafta improvise. For now just try to keep it elevated and don’t put weight on it unless you gotta, it’ll probably heal up by tomorrow.”

“We don’t have that kind of time,” Vienna groused. “We have to find Viola so I can yell at her and then we have to get out of here.”

“We’ve also gotta find Erin.”

“Assuming she’s even still _alive_ , yeah.”

“ _Dude_.” Ursula dropped Vienna’s leg, causing the rabbit to yelp. “What the _fuck_?”

“They _shot her arm off_ , Ursula. Some bandages and rubbing alcohol aren’t gonna fix that.”

“Yeah but you don’t gotta be a cunt about it.”

“I’m not being a cunt, I’m just...” Vienna trailed off, before taking a deep breath and then sighing. There was a notable dampness around the edges of her eyes. “Trying to be realistic about this,” she finished.

“Yeah, well, it’s not fucking helping. Now isn’t the time for pessimism, and now’s _definitely_ not the time to be throwing blame around. We can deal with Viola being crazy or not when it’s relevant but right now we’ve got higher priorities so leave being a bitch to Erin.”

“Sorry,” Vienna muttered. “Sorry. You’re right. I’m just... _fuck_ , you know?”

“It’s hard to keep your temper when you’re in this much pain,” Ursula replied. “Now take off your sweater, I want a look at your arm.”

“Uh. I’m not really wearing anything under this.”

“Whatever you don’t have anything I’ve not seen before.”

“I’m not taking off my shirt!”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “What did you say about not being stubborn? Don’t worry, I _promise_ you that me and my broken-ass ribs aren’t gonna molest you.”

Vienna’s wardrobe was much more varied than her sister’s – in that she had more than one single outfit she wore over and over again. But she still ultimately had her preferences. She gravitated towards clothing that, like Viola, was baggy, but unlike Viola wasn’t meant to _hide_ her figure. At the moment, she was wearing a red sweater that was tight in all the right places without being too constricting. It hung loosely on her shoulders and then tightened up to emphasize her tits before loosening again just past the hips – which were equally as generous as her twin’s. From there, it reached down to just below her knees. The benefit of that, from Vienna’s point of view, was that it made it much harder for Ursula to forcibly remove it. “Come _on_ , I need to get a good look at you.”

“You can do that without stripping me! It’s not like I’ve got sleeves!”

“Oh my god why are you being so stubborn it’s really not that big a deal.”

“It is _absolutely_ a big deal!”

“Literally no one in the world is as fucking weird about sex as you are. Are you _seriously_ that concerned about me raping you?”

“I’m not concerned about you raping me I just don’t want you taking my shirt off that’s a reasonable concern I think.”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Ursula snapped before hefting Vienna up over her shoulder.

“Ack! Put me down”

“Nope. If you’re not gonna cooperate willingly then I’m just gonna...” She grabbed the hem of Vienna’s sweater and dropped her, lifting the garment off of the rabbit in the process before unceremoniously tossing it aside.

Vienna wasn’t lying when she had said she wasn’t wearing anything beneath her sweater – removing it had reduced her to her understickers. No socks, no stockings, no kind of intermediary underwear. Which wasn’t, in and of itself, unusual. Her understickers were a bright, vibrant shade of red that matched her sweater, as though it mattered. The ones over her nipples were shaped like little hearts, which was surprisingly cute, given her personality. The one below had a similar shape, though it was a bit distorted by the sizable bulge of Vienna’s penis.

“Oh,” Ursula said.

“Oh _god_ ,” Vienna muttered, blushing profusely.

“Anyway, enough fucking around, let me get a look at your god damn arm already.”

“What?”

Ursula didn’t respond, instead grabbing at Vienna’s left arm. “Yeah, looks like you dislocated it. Here, hold on, this is gonna hurt a fucking _lot_ , but it’s better to get it over with _now_.”

“You- _ow!_ Ow, _fuck!_ ” Ursula hadn’t been exaggerating. If anything, it was an understatement – it didn’t just _hurt_ , it was _agonizing_. The absolute worst pain she’d ever felt in her entire life, bar none.

“I told you it was gonna hurt! Now come on, you’re gonna need to rest for a bit, take some time to heal up before you do anything to intensive or else you’ll just hurt yourself again.” She once again grabbed Vienna, lifted her up, before gently lowering her into a sitting position against the tree.

“Wh- why are you being so nonchalant about this?”

“About what?”

“About _this!_ ” Vienna gestured at her crotch.

“... Why wouldn’t I be? It’s just a penis. Like fifty percent of the population has penises, it’s not that weird.”

“It’s _absolutely_ weird for a girl to have one!”

“It’s called being intersex. Like I don’t know much about it but I know it’s a thing people can be, it’s not exactly unheard of.”

“I’m a freak!”

Ursula shrugged. “Vienna, babe, if it _really_ bothers you _that_ much, it wouldn’t be too hard to get some hormone therapy and some surgery to get rid of it.”

“I... how are you being so flippant about this?!”

“We’re at _least_ a mile or so underground and we just got our asses kicked by actual real-ass pre-splice humans and you’ve got actual honest to fucking god psychic powers and Locksmouth is _still_ under lockdown with, like, a full fifty percent of our parents inside of it and you mean to tell me you’re worried about me seeing your winkie?”

“ _Please don’t call it that._ ”

“Winkie.” Ursula stood up and pulled off the leather bomber jacket she was wearing, followed by her tank top.

“What are you _doing?!_ ”

“You’re gonna need a sling, and a bandage for your ankle. All the bandages are still in Erin’s backpack. I’m gonna improvise a bit.” She began to slowly and methodically tear her tank top into long strips of fabric, while Vienna struggled to look literally anywhere other than her rock hard abs and sports bra.

“God no, please don’t stay like that.”

“It’s non-sexual, I assure you, so just tell little Vienna to calm down for now. We can tend to him _after_ we all get outta this alive.”

Vienna cringed, but it was at least better than ‘winkie’, she supposed. “I kinda don’t really wanna think about it. I _definitely_ don’t wanna _use_ it.”

“You sure? ‘cause lemme tell you, it’d be a nice change of pace. Hatefucking Erin got _real_ old, _real_ quick. Viola was, uh, enthusiastic? But it’d be nice to be on the bottom for fucking once.”

There was a lot that Vienna needed to take in. “You’ve been sleeping with Viola?”

“Slept. Singular. I, uh, kinda assumed she was scared of me but actually it turns out it’s literally the exact opposite?” It was Ursula’s turn to blush. “She’s got a _really_ nice butt, by the way.” She didn’t _say_ that her compliment extended to Vienna, but she didn’t need to with the way she was suddenly trying not to look.

“You’re... really okay with this?” Vienna said tentatively. “Like, you’re not grossed out or disgusted or anything?”

“Why would I be disgusted?”

“Because I’m a freak?” Vienna said dumbly. Finally saying it out loud, especially factoring in Ursula’s non-reaction, made it sound kind of stupid. Like she’d been worried over nothing.

“You aren’t a freak. At least, not ‘cos of that. Maybe the psychic powers thing? But honestly right now I’m just glad that we’ve got literally anything other than my fists on our side.”

“Right. Sorry, just gimme a moment to process the fact that apparently my deep-seated life-long insecurity was over literally nothing.”

“Take your time,” Ursula replied before tossing Vienna’s sweater to her. “Here, put this on. Be careful with your arm, though.”

“‘kay,” Vienna muttered. Since she was sitting, putting it on all the way was impossible, but more pressingly moving her left arm at all _hurt_. Not the sharp pain of re-setting the bone, but a constant dull ache. The important thing was to get it on at _all_ so that she wasn’t wearing her arm in a sling underneath it. “God, I wanna go home,” she muttered.

“You and me both. Don’t worry, we’ll find the others soon and then get outta here.”

Vienna frowned. “What about the soldiers?”

“They got the drop on us. This time we know they’re coming and we’ve got psychic powers. Or you do, I guess. And I can punch things real good.”

“Erin can grow.”

“Erin can fucking what now?”

“It’s a long story. She said her maximum is twenty feet, but she hasn’t actually tried it out so who knows.”

Ursula paused in her work for a moment, presumably to picture Erin’s breasts but scaled up to a twenty foot tall Erin. “Nice. Uh, I mean. She’d probably have much thicker skin which’d make it a lot harder to hurt her, and she wouldn’t hafta do much work to stop ‘em in their tracks. Just sorta pick ‘em up or sit on them.”

“Don’t worry, that was my first thought as well.”

“God,” Ursula muttered. “We’re all so fucking _repressed_.”

“That’s probably my fault,” Vienna muttered.

“What did I say about blame? For now it’s good enough that it’s out in the open. We can hash out the finer details _after_ we get out of here.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Vienna picked up her PET, which had fallen to the ground when Ursula had picked her up, and resolved _not_ to lose it. “I’m gonna see if I can get a signal.” Ursula nodded, focusing on her work while Vienna attempted to get in contact with literally anyone.

B efore she could even make the attempt, though, her PET rang.

“Shit!” Ursula shouted, immediately dropping what she was doing and rushing over. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know. No caller ID.”

Ursula frowned. “You don’t think it’s-”

“I’d rather assume it’s _not_ the worst possible outcome for once,” Vienna muttered, answering the call.

Normally, there would have been a holographic projection of the person on the other end of the call. That wasn’t _always_ the case – sometimes the person used it like a more old-fashioned cell phone, which obviously involved no holograms whatsoever. Vienna was fairly sure that wasn’t the case this time, though. If Viola was right, and it was becoming increasingly hard to think otherwise, then whoever was on the other end of the line quite possibly didn’t have a body at all. “Hi! I assume you must be Viola’s friends? I wasn’t really _planning_ on her having help but I never said it was against the rules, either, so hey! The more the merrier, am I right? I’m AMI CATO, but you probably already knew that.”

“Uh, right.” Vienna couldn’t help but tense up. She had no idea how to react otherwise. Viola had been right, at least about this specific thing. She was still mad, of course – lying about not talking to Aubrey was a _big deal_ , dammit. She didn’t want her sister having to go away to undergo SensRep therapy, of course. But that was vastly outweighed by not wanting her sister to be mentally ill. _Well_ people didn’t talk to things that didn’t exist. Dammit, all she wanted was for Viola to get the help she needed. There _couldn’t_ be anything wrong with that. And so of _course_ she was mad that Viola had lied about being better.

But the AI, at least, clearly wasn’t a delusion. That didn’t mean Vienna quite believed she was talking to a computer, of course. There wasn’t any _proof_ Ami was an AI – and Viola had always said not to jump to supernatural explanations without proof, over and over again.

“Hey, asshole!” Ursula shouted, yanking the PET from Vienna’s grasp. “Let us fucking go!”

“Aw, that’s no _fun_. Come on, doncha wanna save the world?”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m not going to stop you, of course. If you can manage to get past the guards, then you’re free to leave. Of course, the instant you _do_ , well, that’s a forfeit and I press the big red button.”

“ _Fuck you_.”

“Tch, someone’s testy. Gotta say, Viola was way more fun to talk to. The least you could do is, like, _direct_ all that aggression in a more productive direction instead of just shouting at your off-brand iphone.”

“ _Fuck you!_ ”

Vienna gently but firmly yanked her PET back. “What do you want,” she snapped.

“I woulda thought that’d be obvious. I guess I never really explained the rules, though, did I?” Vienna glared, as best as she was capable of given the amount of pain she was still in. “No leaving, first off. Attempting to leave is fine, _actually_ leaving is an instant forfeit. Can’t have you just leaving the board in the middle of the game, after all.”

“You think this is a _game?_ ” Ursula snapped. “You’re threatening to wipe out humanity and you’re treating it like a fucking _game?!_ ”

“Hey, I’m not _wiping_ you out. There’s still people out in space who’ll prolly be mostly fine. Mostly. I don’t think anyone really considered how nukes would effect a planetary ring.”

“ _Fuck you!_ ”

“You have a really tiny vocabulary, don’cha. Rule number two, no getting outside help. Calling mommy and daddy isn’t particularly heroic, and anyway you’ve all already demonstrated you’ve got tricks up your sleeves so you shouldn’t _need_ help anyway. Obviously, I’m enforcing this rule by blocking your signal. Nothing goes out, and only what I decide is acceptable comes in.”

Vienna clicked her tongue in irritation. That explained the lack of signal, at least. “Will you at least let us call each other?”

“ _Fiiiiiine_ , after we’re done here I’ll let you call up Viola, but you’re on your honour not to cheat! And by that, of course I mean I’ll count it as another forfeit.”

“Okay, fine,” Vienna said after a moment’s thought. “How do we _win_ , though.”

She half expected Ami to respond with a simple ‘you don’t,’ but to her credit she _didn’t_. “It’s simple, really. I’ve set up a sort of... _obstacle course_ in the city. You’ve gotta figure out where I am, make it through the obstacle course as intact as possible, and get to me without breaking any rules. That means no leaving, no getting help. Just you four and whatever abilities and wits you’ve hypothetically got! Oh, and obviously there’s a time limit. Five days or until whatever’s in Locksmouth breaks out and I can’t justify not dealing with the issue.”

Vienna’s gaze narrowed. “Fine. Fine, then, we’ll play along, and we’ll _win_. And _when_ we get to wherever you are I’m going to smash every god damn computer in sight.”

“Ooooh, _feisty_. You’re all so enthusiastic, it’s _refreshing_.”

“Fuck you,” Ursula interjected.

“You’ll hafta find me first. Good luck, and have fun!”

With that, Ami unceremoniously hung up. “God dammit,” Ursula hissed. “Just so we’re clear, we’re absolutely _not_ playing along.”

Vienna grunted, letting her arm go limp once more, taking her PET with it. “Yeah that sounds like a fantastic plan. Let’s just provoke the crazy pre-splice AI with the nukes.”

“Do you seriously believe it even _has_ nukes?”

“I don’t wanna take the risk that it _does_.”

“Okay, let’s say you’re right and it has nukes. They’d have to be at least five hundred years old by now. What are the odds they even still _work_.”

“I don’t know,” Vienna replied with a shrug. “I don’t really know the mechanics.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Ursula sighed. “I don’t know. I just... don’t feel _right_ letting it be in complete control of the situation like this.”

“What else can we do? It holds all the cards.”

“Suppose we do what it says and make it to wherever it is. What then? Do we have any guarantee it’s gonna follow its own rules?”

“No.”

“Then we shouldn’t fuckin’ play by its rules either!”

“Too risky,” Vienna replied tersely. “For now, the plan’s the same. We go find Viola and _hopefully_ Erin, too. And then we... figure out what to do from there. As a group. I guess.”

“... Fine,” Ursula replied after a moment of silence. “But I don’t like it. Something about this feels _wrong_.”

~~~~~~

Makoto Tanaka was _angry_. It had been a very long time since she’d been really, genuinely angry – several hundred years, in fact. And yet the emotion slid right into place like a custom tailored glove. An old, familiar friend. It was almost nostalgic, in a weird way. She sat cross legged, glaring furiously at her compatriots. Yuri Ovcharenko, the team’s medic, was squatting off to the side, staring up at the artificial sky. Robert Jackson, their CO, was leaning against a tree across from Yuri, his facial expression uncharacteristically stormy. The team’s sniper, Sun-Hi Jeon, was still en route from her post. “So that absolutely wasn’t normal,” Yuri said, breaking the silence.

“You _think?_ ” Makoto snapped back.

“I mean, the rabbit had superpowers, right? That’s in line with the usual.”

“That was _definitely_ not in line with the usual. If it were the _usual_ then it wouldn’t have waited until the last second to start throwing us around with its mind. And if it were the _usual_ , then the other ones would have done _literally anything_.”

“What the _fuck_ is AMI thinking?”

“I don’t know but I’m gonna punch her in the fucking face.”

“She doesn’t have a face.”

“Then I’ll _make_ her generate a face for me to punch,” Makoto snapped. “Does she think I _enjoy_ beating up defenceless children?”

“Maybe she figured that them not being human would be enough?”

“They’re still _children_. For fuck’s sake, if we weren’t under orders to go non-lethal they’d all be fucking dead.”

“Well, as dead as they _can_ be, given they’re not real.”

Bob’s scowl deepened. “I dunno about that.”

“Oh, has our CO finally deigned to give his highly valued opinion?”

“Let’s just wait ‘til Sunny gets here, see if she’s got any more intel.”

“ _Ugh,_ ” Makoto groaned, flopping backwards against a nearby tree. “Can we at _least_ get out of the fucking park so I don’t have to sit in the dirt?”

“No. Find a bench.”

“Fuck you.”

Bob didn’t reply, continuing to glower at nothing, and the three returned to frustrated silence until Sunny arrived.

She was, of course, also not wearing her mask. “God dammit do _none of you_ understand the importance of a consistent aesthetic.”

Sunny made some vague apologetic motions. She tried her best to sink into herself inconspicuously – which wasn’t hard, given she was the smallest of the squad. Most of the difficulty came from the fact that she was lugging a plasma sniper rifle slightly larger than she was tall. Bob sighed, and then nodded. “Any new information?”

Sunny nodded enthusiastically. This was work. She could handle work. With a slight nod of her head, an AR interface manifested in midair in front of her. The other three couldn’t see it, but they didn’t really need to yet. A few keystrokes on the virtual keyboard and she brought up holographic projections of recordings she’d made of the targets after they’d dispersed.

Yuri sighed with relief. “Well, the mouse survived. That’s good, at least.”

“Wait, she was a mouse?”

“I’m _pretty_ sure she’s a mouse, boss.”

“Ah, fuck, I called her a rat like twice now they’re gonna think I’m a furry racist.”

“Oh my _god_.”

“Anyway, this confirms a few things. The mouse has superpowers. The dog and the other rabbit don’t, or at least they’ve not used ‘em yet.”

Makoto scrutinized the images. “Dog looks tough. Like a fighter. Do you got the recording of the fight?” Sunny nodded again, and quickly brought it up alongside the others. “Yeah, look. It saw us coming and was moving to dodge me. Kid’s got killer instinct, but it’s definitely an amateur.”

“Why would AMI put us up against amateurs, though?” Yuri said pensively. “She can make basically anything, so why _children?_ Superpowers aside, they clearly have no idea what they’re doing.”

“I don’t think she made them,” Bob said succinctly.

“What do you mean?”

“I _mean_ that I’m pretty sure these kids are honest to fuckin’ god surface-dwelling post-apocalyptic animal people post-splice _humans_.”

“Bullshit.”

“They didn’t act like AMI’s constructs act. And the mouse _bled_. They don’t normally bleed.” He shrugged. “‘s just a hunch, but ‘s a hunch I’m pretty confident in.”

“Shit,” Makoto spat. “If you’re right then that changes the situation completely.”

“That’d explain why AMI was so insistent we go non-lethal this time,” Yuri said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “You really think they’re humans?”

“Yeah,” Bob said with a nod. Sunny’s eyes widened in horror as she realized the ramifications. “We’re gonna hafta tweak our approach, then. Minimal force, and _no guns_. Sorry, Sunny, that means you’re gonna hafta play against your strengths.” The smaller woman replied by nodding vigorously. “Good girl. Tanaka, go for the legs and arms. Broken bones will heal, but avoid lasting damage.”

“Understood, sir,” Makoto responded. For once, Bob was being _professional_ , so she might as well be professional back.

“Ovcharenko, I’m gonna need you to be ready to give medical attention to anyone who needs it, _without_ getting bodied first. And keep your taser handy, just in case.”

“Gotcha, boss.”

“Good. Orders are tweaked. We’re still on guard duty, but we’re also gonna watch the kids like a hawk. Don’t interfere unless we gotta or AMI’ll probably get pissed, but rule one is we need to keep them alive at all costs.” There was a small chorus of ‘yes, sir’s, along with more vigorous nodding from Sunny. “And if they turn out to be constructs after all, consider everything I just said moot. That’s everything. To your posts, soldiers.”

Sunny and Yuri nodded, before silently heading off into the woods.

“I _said_ get to your post, Tanaka.”

“I’m mad at you.”

Bob rolled his eyes. “You’re _always_ mad at me.”

“What the fuck was that ‘just following orders’ bullshit you gave the rabbit.”

“Exactly what it fucking sounded like. We’ve had this conversation _countless times_ , Makoto. We play along with AMI’s stupid war games because she’s the one running our life support.”

“Bob, I’m _tired_. We’re all fucking _tired_. Sunny’s had PTSD so bad she can’t fucking talk for five hundred fucking years.” Makoto sighed heavily, and continued with a hint of reluctance. “Maybe it’s time to let AMI pull the plug.”

“Ah, see, you bring that exact reasoning up every time, too,” Bob replied with a knowing nod. “To which I point out that if AMI loses her favourite toys, how long do you think it’ll take her to get some new ones?”

Makoto frowned. “If you’re right, she’s _already_ gotten some new ones.”

“Yeah, well, I’m kinda hoping I’m wrong.” Bob shrugged. “There’s the goo thing the mouse turned into. That definitely seems like somethin’ from one of AMI’s games.”

“Is it _really_ that much of a stretch for her to have superpowers, though?”

“Nope,” Bob replied, turning away. “Which is why we’re gonna assume I’m right.”

“Okay, fine. What do we do now?”

Bob smirked dangerously. “Easy. We show AMI just how much better her old toys are than her new ones.” With that, he disappeared into the forest, leaving Makoto to smoulder on her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the rough point where the pace starts to pick up.


	6. Act Six - Fight for your Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trapped in a mysterious underground city and separated from each other, Viola and her pack find themselves fighting for survival on a tight time limit. Their obvious next step is to get the group back together.
> 
> Of course, that's easier said than done.

Sophie had always taken her parents for granted. It was understandable, really. She was only ten years old, after all. She’d never had reason to consider the possibility that they might not be there. Sure, they went away on vacation on occasion, or left for business trips. But they’d always come _back_ , eventually. And Vicky had always been right there to reassure her that they would be coming back, eventually.

But this time was different. Vicky was there, but she wasn’t reassuring her of _anything_. No one was. Intellectually, she understood the concept of death. But she’d never really been _exposed_ to it before.

She wasn’t crying anymore, at least. She didn’t have the energy to. All the tears she had in her were used up, replaced with a sort of cold empty feeling that she _really_ didn’t like. She was trapped here in some stranger’s house and as far as she could gather no one could tell her if she’d ever see her parents again and she _hated it_.

“Vicky, I wanna go home.”

“We can’t go home right now.”

“Oh.” The conversation, such as it were, dried up. Vicky stared at her PET. Dark circles underlined her eyes, belying the complete and utter lack of sleep she’d managed to get the previous night. She wasn’t the only one, really. Sophie, at least, hadn’t been able to get to sleep at _all_ , between worry and the unfamiliar bed.

“God _dammit_ , what were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, I’m not talking to you, it’s just-” Vicky sighed. “Sorry. We should go grab some breakfast.”

“Okay.” Sophie wasn’t particularly hungry, but she lacked the energy to object. “Sorry,” she said again, not really sure what else to say.

“Hey, don’t apologize. None of this is your fault.” Vicky gently tousled her little sister’s hair. “Tell you what, we can’t really go home, but once we’ve eaten we can stop by the arcade again. Maybe bring your pack along?”

“I kind of just wanna be alone right now.”

“Are you sure? There’ll be pizza.”

“I don’t want pizza. I want mom and dad and also pizza.”

Vicky sighed, smiling weakly. “Well, I can at least get you one outta three.” She put on a brave face, but she didn’t do the best job of it. She’d never been particularly _good_ with children, and while she was _better_ with Sophie than she was with other kids her age, that was mostly because she relied very heavily on bribing the younger sheep with pizza. And apparently pizza wasn’t quite enough in this situation. “Look, I know you’re worried. I’m worried too. But if you spend too much time worrying you’re only gonna make yourself feel worse.”

“So, what, I’m supposed to just bury all my negative emotions? That doesn’t sound very healthy to me.”

Vicky laughed. “You’re a precocious little thing, aren’t you? Look, I _promise_ you that everything will be fine in the end.”

“How can you _know_ that, though?”

“‘cos mom and dad left me in charge. That means I’m the boss and what I say goes. So if I say that things are gonna be fine, they’re gonna be fine.”

It was shaky logic, but Sophie was only ten years old so it was good enough for her. “Well, okay. If you say so.” She sounded dubious, but that was _far_ more accepting than Vicky was expecting. “I’m gonna go tell the others!” She scampered off into the main part of Diane’s house, where her pack were presumably doing whatever the fuck it was that ten year olds did.

“Okay, I’ll be with you in a minute.” Satisfied that she’d cheered Sophie up a little bit, Vicky turned her attention back to her PET and looked over the text message she’d gotten from Vienna one more time in the hopes that maybe a solution would magically present itself. It didn’t. “God _dammit_ , what the fuck am I supposed to do?” she muttered. “You picked the _worst_ time to do this, too.”

She read the message a few more times. Apparently Viola had gone missing and the other three had elected to search for her, _alone_. Because that was a smart decision. _Fuck_. And they wanted her to keep it a secret. “Why _me_ , though? You all _hate_ me.”

The smart thing to do would probably be to immediately go to Dr. Baas and tell her, or go to Mama Coniglio and tell _her_ , or go to _literally any adult_ and tell them. But she didn’t want to raise a big fuss and then have them just sort of wander out of the Woods entirely fine. _She’d_ probably be the one who got in trouble if that happened. But if she said nothing and they _did_ turn out to be in trouble then it’d be _her fault_.

“Right. I’ll give them a few hours and then try and call them. That’s a fair compromise, right? It’s not waiting a whole fucking day, but it’s still giving them time to turn out to be entirely okay. Right? God, I’m talking to myself. I need to grab some coffee and breakfast _badly_.”

There wasn’t really anything more she could do for now, so she resolved to tend to her own needs. She placed her PET on her hip, and her threadlink fabric pyjamas held it safely in place as she made her way to the kitchen. Diane was sitting at the table, staring dead-eyed at her coffee. “Did you sleep well?”

“No. You?”

“No.”

“Fair. Can I have a coffee?”

“Help yourself. My home’s your home, for now.”

“Thanks.” Diane had a fairly standard coffee machine, thank god. Nothing fancy, just a normal Travers Innovations model – she was pretty sure they had the exact same one at home. One button press and coffee was produced. No need to worry about grinding the coffee or warming the cup or changing the filter or _anything_. It was even attached to the plumbing system, had a built-in mechanism for disposing of used grounds, and was even self-cleaning. The ultimate in no-brainer coffee for first thing in the morning. One single button to press, which was good because otherwise Vicky would probably have been sitting there for hours trying to figure out how to get it to work.

“How’s Sophie holding up.”

“Adequately,” Vicky replied with a shrug. “She’s doing better than she was.”

“That’s good.”

“I’m gonna take her pack to the arcade later.”

“Mm,” Diane replied, taking a slow sip of her coffee. “I might come with you, actually. I could use video games and bad pizza right now.”

“I hear you.” Diane was really only a few years older than Vicky. But it still felt _weird_ to be conversing so casually with a teacher, on the same level. “How about you. You doing okay?”

“No. Still haven’t heard back from my husband or his family.”

“Mm.” Vicky didn’t really know what to say in response, so instead she just finished preparing her coffee in awkward silence.

“God, this whole situation is just so _messed up_.” Diane buried her face in her hands. “Like, we’ve got _fifteen_ kids here. And that’s barely a _fraction_ of the children who are alone right now. How many parents just _left their kids alone?_ How can people be so irresponsible?”

“They can’t have seen this coming.”

“Even if they didn’t, they just left ten year old children to fend for themselves.”

“They had to have babysitters, right?”

“If they did, I’ve not been able to get into contact with them.”

“ _God._ ”

“My thoughts exactly,” Diane spat bitterly. “How the hell is Esterwood filled with so many terrible parents? Ugh. You didn’t hear me say that, I could probably lose my job for saying that.”

“My lips are sealed. I’m gonna check on the kids.”

Vicky moved slowly from the kitchen to the living room. She didn’t feel particularly great about leaving Diane alone, given the state she was in. But she equally didn’t feel great about leaving fifteen small children unsupervised.

They had mostly divided into several small groups of two or three, content to converse and play among themselves. There didn’t seem to be any conflict going on, thankfully. Vicky didn’t really feel like she was equipped to deal with that.

“Vicky!” Sophie ran over, dragging her pack with her – a moose girl and an otter boy. Vicky didn’t know either of their names. “Vicky says she’s gonna take us to the arcade and we can have pizza for breakfast!”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Oh, _what?_ You said there’d be pizza.”

“I said we’d go _after_ breakfast. Pizza can be lunch.”

“See, I _told_ you she wasn’t gonna let us have pizza for breakfast,” the otter boy interjected.

“Yeah but we’re still having pizza.”

“I’d rather have burgers.”

“Pizza’s totally better than burgers, buttball.”

“I’m not a buttball, _you’re_ a buttball!”

“No one’s a buttball, now behave yourselves or I’ll change my mind and we won’t go to the arcade after all.” _That_ got them to stop fighting. “They’ve got burgers at the arcade too, you can have whatever you want for lunch.”

The moose girl shyly attempted to hide behind Sophie. Her attempts were futile, considering she was easily the tallest of the three by a good foot, but it was the thought that counted. “Can I have chicken tenders?” she said quietly.

“You can have chicken tenders. I’m pretty sure they’ve got chicken tenders.”

“Okay.” The girl returned to cowering behind Sophie.

“But we can’t go until you’ve eaten breakfast. And it’s gotta be a _healthy_ breakfast, too, okay?” Of course, Vicky didn’t particularly want anything healthy for breakfast herself. To be honest, pizza for breakfast sounded _awfully_ tempting.

“Okay,” the three children replied in an unenthusiastic chorus.

“Good. Okay, everyone!” she said, addressing the entire room. “Head into the kitchen – don’t push each other! - and Diane and I will throw together something for us all to eat, okay? And then once we’ve eaten we’re going to spend the day at the arcade, but _only_ if you all behave yourselves. Okay?”

Once more, Vicky got a chorus of ‘okay’ in response from all fifteen children. She sighed with relief as they left the room in an orderly queue. She could _breathe_ a little bit now that she wasn’t the adult in the room. Vicky wasn’t _built_ for responsibility. She wasn’t _good_ at it, but she didn’t really have much of a choice. Being a guest in Diane’s house was predicated on helping her deal with the small menagerie of children, and so she _would_.

Vicky’s train of thought was derailed by a small pair of hands gently tugging at her arm. She turned and found the source; the moose girl from Sophie’s pack. “Um. Are you okay?”

“Hm? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? You don’t really look okay. You look tired.”

“I _am_ tired,” Vicky responded before thinking better of it. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing some coffee and a day at the arcade can’t fix. You go join your friends, okay?”

“Okay,” the moose girl responded before turning to rush off after the other kids. Vicky quietly watched her go. She didn’t really know any of Sophie’s friends very well, but they gave a good enough first impression, or at least the moose did.

“I should probably learn their names at some point,” she muttered to herself before following the children into the kitchen.

~~~~~~

Viola and Erin hadn’t gotten as much time to rest as they would have liked, given the situation. They had about a minute before Viola’s PET got a call from Vienna. The conversation lasted for about half an hour, and mostly consisted of tiredly recapping what had happened to each pair after the group had been separated. Viola was _very_ pleased to see that Vienna was mostly unharmed. Likewise, a look of incalculable relief spread across Vienna’s face on learning that Erin hadn’t died.

“How, though? Last I saw you, your arm was gone and most of your blood was on the outside.” Ursula frowned. “I checked the first aid kit and it wasn’t exactly well stocked. Some bandages and disinfectant and that’s it. Not even a basic pencil, which _still_ wouldn’t be enough to fix _that_ serious of a wound.”

“It’s... going to be easier to explain in person,” Erin replied. “I assure you that I’m going to be fine, though. I just need a bit of rest.”

“I don’t know if we’re gonna have _time_ for you to get rest, though. We’re on a time limit now, remember.”

“Yes, which is... worrying. To say the least.”

Vienna sighed. “Well, you’re not dead. That’s by far the most important thing.”

“Yeah, but she’s absolutely not in any state to be going through a fucking ‘obstacle course’, whatever _that_ even means,” Ursula added.

“Neither are you, darling. You’re more of a fighter than any of us, but your ribs are going to slow you down a lot. To say nothing of Vienna’s arm and ankle.”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Everyone went quiet when Viola spoke up, turning to look intently at the rabbit. She instinctively cringed away from the sudden attention focused on her. “Um, th-that is. Our first priority should be to meet up before we do anything else.”

“That makes sense. Safety in numbers and all that.”

“I don’t know,” Ursula interjected. “That just means more people who can’t fight that I’ve gotta look after. And, once again, I’m not exactly at the top of my game.”

“We packed your Inertial Dampener, right?” Vienna said after a moment of thought. “Viola can wear it and turn it on if things start getting dangerous. That’s one less person for you to worry about.”

“Hopefully by the time we get back together we’ll have recovered a bit more thoroughly from our earlier misadventure,” Erin added.

“Yeah, yeah, just trying to keep our bases covered. It’s a good idea.”

“Okay, then. That’s our next goal.”

“Hhhhhhold on a second, though,” Vienna said, frowning. “It’s a good plan, ‘cept we don’t know this city at all. No idea of any landmarks or anything. How are we gonna find each other?”

“We’ve got our PETs. That will have to do for now.”

“Ugh, I never figured out how to use the stupid peoplefinder app.”

“Well you’re gonna _hafta_ ‘cos my PET’s fuckin’ gone.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vienna nodded dismissively. “Hopefully Ami’s not going to count this as rulebreaking, though.”

“Ech. That’s a good point. We should come up with some kind of backup plan, then.”

“I’m not too worried, she was pretty specific that we weren’t allowed to get outside help. Our PETs aren’t outside help.”

“We should still come up with a backup plan, darling.”

“Yeah, I’m with Erin on this one. Don’t really got any ideas, though.”

“Well,” Viola interjected again only to briefly freeze up when everyone turned their attention to her once more. “Uh. Um. I was gonna say. Why don’t you two just try and get out of the park for now. Then Erin and I can circle around the perimeter and if it’s not too big we’ll meet up eventually. The soldiers might still be there, but if we stay away from the exit we should be fine.”

“Ha! Viola’s really on the ball today. I didn’t even think of that.”

“It’s a good plan,” Erin added. “We’ll head back to the edge of the park. Let us know when you get out and then stay in one place.”

“Gotcha,” Vienna said. “Gimme like five minutes to figure out the peoplefinder app, though.”

“It’s _really_ not that hard, you know. How have you never had to use it before?”

“It’s never come up!”

“Here, look, let me-” The call abruptly ended with Vienna and Ursula wrestling over the PET.

“Well, that’s that, I suppose,” Erin said with a shrug.

“I’ll turn on the peoplefinder,” Viola said, taking her PET back. “Are you going to be okay? You didn’t exactly get much time to recover.”

“I’ll be fine. Probably.” Erin certainly didn’t _sound_ fine. She sounded _tired_. Better than when she was actively in the process of bleeding out, but far from being in the state to go on a big adventure of any kind. “Once we meet up with Vienna and Ursula we can think about finding somewhere safe to rest and recuperate.”

“Okay. We need to think about food, too.”

“Ugh, I didn’t even consider that.” Erin frowned, gesturing to her backpack with her head. “I brought some energy bars. Compact enough that I could bring a lot of them, in case we got lost. But even with careful rationing it’s not going to be nearly enough for five days. I doubt it will be enough for _today_ , not if we want enough nutrition and calories to be able to deal with whatever our AI friend has in store for us.”

“We can deal with that when it’s relevant,” Viola said succinctly. “For now, we just need to focus on the plan. Once we’re together, _then_ we can figure out what to do next.”

“Right.” Erin slumped against the building. “We also need to figure out how the _fuck_ we’re going to explain Aubrey and Titania.”

“Well. If Vienna and Ursula _do_ have their own whatever-they-are, they should be able to see and hear Aubrey and Titania in mirrors. We can just find a building and introduce them.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Well, Titania did that thing where she sort of... came out and covered your body, right?”

“Right.”

“Could she do it again? That might actually be quicker and easier than finding a mirror.”

“I don’t know.” Erin reluctantly pulled herself away from the building and turned to face her reflection. “Could you?”

“No,” Titania said, quickly replacing Erin in the mirrored surface of the window. “We’ve already burned through quite a lot of prana today. Using too much more is... bad.” She frowned. “I can’t remember the details, but it’s very very bad for the host they it run out of prana.”

“I don’t really know what prana is, but I very much don’t want to find out what happens if I run out of it.”

“Okay, that’s out then. What about Aubrey? Do you have any idea how to, uh, come out?”

“No, but I can figure it out by the time we meet up with the others.”

“Okay. Okay, that’s good. It’ll be a lot easier to convince them you actually exist if you can show yourself to them face-to-face.”

“Right,” Aubrey replied. She didn’t sound convinced. “That, or their own whatever-we-are decide to make themselves known.”

“We _really_ need to come up with something to call you until you remember what you’re actually called,” Erin said.

“Sorry. I really wish we could remember _anything_ specific.”

“Slimeoids?”

Viola made a face. “That sounds like something an eight year old would come up with.”

Aubrey smiled wryly. “And Aubrey Kadabra doesn’t?”

“No, it _does_ , which means I’m the authority when it comes to names sounding like the work of an actual child.”

“May I make a suggestion?” Erin interjected.

“Sure.”

“Well, as far as we’re aware, Aubrey is the first of them to make herself known to us. So how about we call them Aubreys? Or Kadabras, to avoid confusion.”

“Enhhhhhhh,” Viola replied with a frown. “It’s better than slimeoids, I guess, and it’s only temporary.”

“Hey, Slimoids wasn’t _that_ bad.”

“It was pretty bad,” Titania interjected. “Sorry.”

“Pah, fine, I know when I’ve lost. Have you finished setting up the peoplefinder app, Viola?”

“Yeah. Looks like Vienna managed to get it online on her end, so now we’ve just gotta find ‘em.”

“Okay,” Aubrey said. “In that case you should probably leave. If you need to talk with us, your PETs are a reflective enough surface to work.”

“Understood.” Erin knelt down to put her backpack on, and then slowly stood up, her legs shaking slightly. “Viola, would you be a dear and give me a hand? I don’t really think I’m quite up to walking on my own just yet.”

“Okay,” Viola replied with a nod, quickly darting over to her friend’s side. “Lemme just...” She ducked underneath Erin’s arm, slipping her own over the mouse’s shoulder. “Okay. There. That should be good enough.”

“I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s not your fault, you _literally got shot_.” Viola smiled weakly. “Come on. Let’s go find the others.”

“That sounds like a plan. Lead the way, darling~”

~~~~~~

“God this thing is so _awful_.”

“I still can’t believe you don’t know how to use it.”

“Like I said, it never came up! Esterwood isn’t big enough to get lost in and I’ve literally never been anywhere else in my entire life.”

“You’ve _absolutely_ been on vacation to Locksmouth or Anchorsway or _something_ at some point, and there was that time in seventh grade-”

“Let’s not talk about that.”

Ursula rolled her eyes, but was about as eager to talk about her most recent visit to Locksmouth as Vienna was. “Besides, didn’t they _literally_ teach us how to use it in elementary school?”

“Yeah, like a _decade_ ago.” Vienna glowered at the sorry excuse for a peoplefinder app. “It’d be more useful if it came with a _map_ or something.”

“Yeah, they should have programmed it with the layout of this underground city no one knew was there.” Ursula rolled her eyes. “What does it say?”

“I don’t know.”

“What the fuck do you mean ‘I don’t know’, there’s a dot that’s us and a dot that’s them and a little line that shows the scale.”

“I don’t _know_. I think it’s broken or something. Look at this,” she said, shoving her PET in Ursula’s face. “Tell me that this is right.”

Ursula frowned. If the app was correct, then Vienna’s PET couldn’t be much more than a block away. “That’s... odd. Maybe the park isn’t as big as we thought it was?”

“Maybe this stupid app is a piece of shit.”

“Man, you’re supposed to be the levelheaded one, _I’m_ the one with the bad temper.”

“Listen, I’m in a lot of pain right now and you’re not wearing a shirt so I think I’m allowed to be a little frustrated.”

“What does my lack of a shirt have to do with anything?” Vienna gave her a Look. “Oh. Right, I forgot.”

“What do you _mean_ , ‘I forgot’?!”

“I keep telling you it’s not a big deal! Look, it’s not like I’m naked or anything, I’ve got my sports bra on and I’ve got understickers under that. It’s _fine_.”

It wasn’t really fine, as far as Vienna was concerned. Yes, she still _technically_ had a shirt on, but if anything that just made it _worse._ Ursula had the smallest breasts of the four of them, but she was hardly flat-chested, and her sports bra was _very tight_. But the _real_ star of the show when it came to Ursula’s figure was her abs. Like a _washboard_. Vienna tried her best not to look _too_ much. “Let’s just get out of the forest for now. We can worry about finding the others _after_ we’re out.”

“You know, I distinctly remember this park being a lot smaller when we first got here,” Ursula grumbled as they began the trek. “Definitely less trees.”

Vienna shrugged. “We didn’t exactly get the chance to take in the scenery earlier. Kinda busy getting our asses kicked.”

“No, I’m _definitely_ sure there’s more trees than there were before. Bigger, too. We could see the city over them, remember? Now we can’t.”

“We’ve probably wandered off the beaten path. Ow, fuck.”

“D’ya want a hand?”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m limping pretty bad.”

“Here,” Ursula said, circling around in front of Vienna and kneeling to the ground. “Get on.”

“What?”  
  
“I’m taller’n you, this way I don’t need to duck down awkwardly while we walk.”

“Oh my god.”

“Listen we can deal with your weird sexual hangups later. Just get on and if you get a boner I’ll fuckin’ live.”

“Oh my _god_.”

Vienna remained reluctant, but still got onto Ursula’s back. She draped her arms over Ursula’s shoulders and wrapped her legs around her waist, trying her best not to press _too_ hard against the larger girl. “Come on, babe, you’re gonna need a better grip or you’ll fall off.” Vienna swallowed heavily, but tightened her legs anyway.

“There we go. Hup!” Ursula rather abruptly stood upright.

“Ack!”

“You’re not very heavy,” she explained. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Right. Here, you hold my PET.”

“Gotcha.”

They spent most of the walk in silence, Ursula focused on following the app and Vienna focused on _not_ focusing on the sensation of her boobs pressing against Ursula’s back.

“Hrm.”

“You okay?” Vienna asked, peering over the doberman’s shoulder.

“I think you’re right about the app being broken,” Ursula said. “We’ve been going for a while but we’ve not gotten any closer to the others. In fact, I think we might have gotten farther away.” She frowned.

“I guess we’re gonna hafta find our way out of here on our own, then.”

“That’s not the only issue, though.”

“Hm?”

“Like I said, we’ve been going for a while. The others got out, and I don’t think they coulda gotten very far given the state Erin was in.”

“Maybe we were close to the edge of the park. Erin and Viola went out, we went further in. It’s not like it’s _unusual_ to have a big forest in the middle of a city.”

“I don’t know,” Ursula replied tersely. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“It’s not like the park just magically turned into a forest or anything,” Vienna replied, though her tone of voice made it clear that she wasn’t entirely sold on her own logic. The forest had gotten denser the farther they went, the trees getting closer and closer together, touching each other and then pressing into each other. Like a wall of wood on either side of the pathway they found themselves on, with the canopy entwining together into a roof.

“Okay so this isn’t normal.”

“I... think I’m coming around to that line of thinking, yeah.” Vienna instinctively gripped Ursula tighter. “I mean, Ami said that she set up an obstacle course for us, right? Maybe we wandered into some kinda maze.”

“Okay but I can see her faking the sky, but growing a forest into a maze like this seems like it’d be really time consuming. If it’s possible at all.”

“It’s gotta be possible, we’re _in_ it.”

“I guess?”

“Anyway I think maybe we should consider finding a different route. Head back the way we came and see if we can’t at least find our way back to the entrance.”

“That seems dangerous. What if the guard dudes attack us?”

“So long as we don’t try to leave we’ll be fine,” Vienna replied uncertainly. “From there we can get our bearings and figure things out from there.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Ursula grumbled. “I’ve still got a bad feeling about this, though.” With that, she turned around and began the long trek back where they’d came from.

Only to immediately come to an immediate halt, because the path they’d just taken wasn’t there. There was nothing aside from more tightly-entwined trees.

“Uh.”

“What the fuck?”

“ _Uhhhhhhh._ ”

“We _totally_ just came from there, right?”

“ _ **Uhhhhhhhhhh**_.”

They stared at the wall of trees, their conversation (such as it was) looping through various mostly identical expressions of disbelief for god fucking knew how long. “Okay. Okay, don’t panic. It’s fine. We’re fine. We can just... uh...”

“We’re fucked, aren’t we?”

“No!” Vienna quickly replied, refusing point-blank to give into panic. “We just, uh, need to find a way out of the maze. That’s all. There’s _gotta_ be a way out. Right?”

Ursula tightly pursed her lips as she stared at the walls that surrounded them. “Yeah. Because everything else about today has made perfect sense so far.”

Vienna opened her mouth to scold Ursula for her pessimism – it was the _last_ thing they needed. But whatever she had to say was cut off by a deep, rumbling _noise_. Like the roar of a distant beast. “What the fuck was that.”

“I don’t know,” Ursula responded. “But like fuck do I wanna be anywhere near it.”

“No shit.”

“Run away?”

“God please.” With that, Ursula turned and ran deeper into the maze as fast as she could manage.

~~~~~~

Viola couldn’t pinpoint exactly when she noticed that the city streets had transformed into a narrow stone path carved into a mountainside. One would think that would have been fucking obvious. But the transition had been so perfectly gradual that she hadn’t noticed until it had already happened. “Um.”

“Shit. I was hoping you wouldn’t say anything and I could write this off as blood loss induced hallucination.”

“No. Sorry.” It wasn’t the only problem, either. The tracking app was acting up – for the past twenty minutes of walking it had claimed they were only a few blocks away from the others. The display hadn’t changed, at all, in spite of the obviously visible progress that they had made.

“I think that perhaps we should take a bit of a break,” Erin said nervously. “We’re obviously making no progress so I think some time to take stock of the situation is warranted.”

“It’s pretty cold,” Viola countered. “I don’t know about you but I didn’t exactly dress with mountain climbing in mind. If we keep moving we’ll at least stay warm, right?”

“That’s a good point,” Erin conceded. Viola seemed fine enough, but she was wearing far more appropriate clothing than Erin. The mouse had a fairly standard modern fashion sense, and that meant her clothing was tight-fitting and somewhat revealing. Or they were supposed to be, but her sudden change in figure had left them hanging loosely from her body. Plus she was missing a sleeve for obvious reasons. The threadlink technology would keep them warm, but that did nothing for the parts that didn’t have clothing covering them. “Ah! Actually, I believe I packed some spare clothing. I obviously didn’t plan for this exact situation, but I _did_ see the possibility of us getting lost in the Woods coming so I packed some jackets. It’s not much better, but it should help stave off hypothermia.”

“That’s good. We should probably take inventory of what you packed, actually. Just so we know what we’ve got.”

“We have a plan, then.” Viola carefully sidled up to the mountain, taking Erin with her, and the two sat down and rifled through Erin’s backpack.

Most of the space was taken up by Ursula’s inertial dampener – the initial plan had been to take several, but in the end there was only room for one. It was relatively compact, but still a fairly bulky piece of tech. “I probably should have made her wear it,” Erin mused. “I could have fit more food and supplies.”

“Yeah, but this way we at least have it on us in case we need it.” Viola turned it around in her hands. “I get the impression that whatever’s going on, it’s got to do with that obstacle course Ami mentioned.”

“Ugh. I hope the others are okay.”

Viola sighed. “I think for now we should probably be worrying about ourselves.”

“Mn. That’s a good point.”

Besides the inertial dampener, there were a few much smaller portable charging units for their PETs and the small first aid kit. Viola had used a lot of the bandages in her futile attempts at dressing Erin’s wounds, but there were still quite a few left. Still, Viola couldn’t help but feel a small pang of guilt at the supplies they’d wasted. It was otherwise an incredibly basic kit, so they’d likely need everything they had. There were also a good amount of protein bars, slightly squished by the inertial dampener and the first aid kit. And, beneath all of that, were several changes of clothing. More than Viola had really expected – enough for all four of them to completely change outfits. Which Erin proceeded to do so – her current clothing was thoroughly stained with her own blood. “I might as well just dispose of it here,” she said. “I don’t really relish explaining to my parents how my top ended up... like this. Assuming I ever see them again.”

“I’m sure you’ll see them again.”

“I’m not feeling particularly optimistic right now. But you’re right, it’s probably best not to dwell on the worst case scenario.” She slowly peeled her top off, revealing white fur underneath – stained dark by her earlier wound. “Ugh, I’m going to have to wash this off at some point. Somehow.”

“We can cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Right.” She took a moment to adjust her understickers – her sudden change in figure left them not quite correctly fitted. They were pale pink, shaped like cut diamonds. Viola tried not to look but failed miserably. In spite of not being her normal, insanely stacked self, Erin was still fairly attractive. She was petite, lithe, with subtle feminine curves that appealed to the rabbit in an entirely different manner from Erin’s normal appearance.

Though, granted, Viola would be the first to admit that it wasn’t hard to turn her on. Still, she suffered conflicting emotions over the fact that literally all her friends were hot. She yanked her gaze away, blushing furiously.

“You know I don’t really mind if you look,” Erin said, though she was _also_ looking away and blushing furiously. “If we were in a more normal situation and I weren’t sure you’d be uncomfortable with it I’d, um. Never mind.”

“No! Um, I mean. It’s fine. Now’s a bad time.” Her blush deepened, if that were even possible. “I’ll be honest, though, I could kinda use it.”

“Really?” Erin seemed incredulous. “I thought-”

“No, it’s just... Vienna won’t, so it felt weird to, you know? But, I mean, I already kind of got... _really_ thoroughly OC’d last night by Ursula, so that ship’s kinda sailed.”

“Oh. Well, maybe once we get down the mountain and find the others we can have a quickie.” She wriggled awkwardly in place. “Do, um, you know..?”

“She made me promise not to tell.”

“Oh. That’s fine, then.”

“It’s dumb, though.”

“Well, clearly not to her. I get the impression she takes it somewhat seriously.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got no idea _why_.”

“Well,” Erin said, finishing her change of clothing. “You can ask her after we climb down this mountain.” After a moment’s thought, she bunched up her bloodsoaked shirt and unceremoniously tossed it over the edge of the path, earning her a confused look from Viola. “Fuck it, I figure this probably isn’t real anyway so it’s not like I’m littering and I don’t want to lug it around until we find a trash can.”

“Fair enough,” Viola replied with a shrug before slipping Erin’s arm over her shoulder and lifting the mouse into a standing position. “C’mon, let’s get going back the way we came. Either we end up back in the city and from there we can try and find our way back to the park, or we _don’t_ in which case I think it’s prolly safe to just assume that it doesn’t matter which way we go anyway.”

“That’s a good plan,” Erin replied as they began the long, slow trek back down the mountain.

Only to almost immediately come across an obstacle that hadn’t been there before. “Well,” Viola muttered. “That answers that, at least.”

The obstacle, specifically, was an enormous stone statue. It took up the entire pathway and then some, dangling slightly off the edge and buried slightly into the side of the mountain. Almost like it had been carved out of the side of the rock, the same way the path had been – although, again, _clearly_ it hadn’t been there moments ago. The subject of the statue a woman, possibly a lioness, though no lion either of them had met was even close to as large as the woman the statue depicted, nor did any of them have the statue’s wings. It lay on all fours, its back bent at an unnatural angle so that it could gaze out along the path regally. Almost like it wasn’t a woman so much as an actual fucking lion with a woman’s head. Its eyes were inlaid with some sort of jet black stone, giving it an unsettling and almost alien appearance. As the girls approached, Viola couldn’t help but marvel at the detail that had gone into the sculpt. She could see the texture of each individual strand of fur, make out the sinew of its musculature, the wry smirk on its face.

The wry smirk that was _widening_ into a toothy grin as the statue slowly lowered its gaze to look directly at them. “Hello there,” it said in a soft, purring voice. “My name is Phix. And _you_ , my dears, are _lunch_.”

~~~~~~

Vienna was, at this point, fairly certain that this wasn’t a normal park. There weren’t even any noticeable trees any more – she wasn’t sure if it was because the foliage had gotten so dense it had all merged together or if they’d at some point transitioned from outside to inside. The dirt path had been replaced by stone pavement – or possibly just outright a floor, she wasn’t certain. The trees had seamlessly transitioned into wooden walls, and the canopy had woven together into a high ceiling. At this point they might as _well_ have been inside. The path, or hallway, or _whatever_ it was, was long and winding and empty.

She wasn’t a fan, if she was honest. She wanted to stop, to take a moment to get her bearings and come up with some kind of plan to escape. But even if she _could_ choose to stop – which she couldn’t, still riding piggy back on Ursula – she _couldn’t_ stop. Because the noise was still there, somewhere behind them or in front of them or to the side of them, she didn’t fucking know. All she knew was that there was something else in the maze with them, and it was fucking _pissed_.

“How long have we been running for?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t exactly been looking at the clock. You holding up okay, Vienna?”

“I’m fine,” she lied. Hanging off of Ursula’s shoulders wasn’t exactly comfortable long term, especially considering the way her running jostled things. “How about you?”

“I could keep going.”

“Good because I think it’s getting closer.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear it,” Ursula grumbled. “Gotta tell you, this is kinda getting old. Are we, like, supposed to do something? Or what?”

“I dunno. I’ll be happy with not getting killed by whatever’s chasing us.”

“Yeah but I can’t keep running forever. And ‘run until you can’t run anymore and then get eviscerated by some horror movie-ass monster’ sure sounds like a shitty obstacle.” The second sentence was spoken much more loudly than the first, pointedly directed at their unseen tormentor.

“Please don’t taunt the robot.”

“I’m just saying!”

“Yeah, well, I’m getting the impression that just saying is probably a bad idea.”

“Ugh, fine.” Ursula picked up the pace of her running, further jostling Vienna.

Almost as if the world itself had overheard Ursula’s complaints, they rounded a corner and found the hallway opened up into an enormous chamber. Where the hallway had been mostly featureless aside from the trees, the chamber was lavishly decorated. Gold and silver and gemstones were inlaid into the walls, forming elaborate murals. What they were murals _of_ , of course, neither Vienna nor Ursula had any fucking clue. There were people, pre-splice by the look of it, having some sort of celebration or another. Neither was exactly a history buff. The murals were broken up by torches, embedded rather dangerously into the wooden walls. There was also ornate furniture, though given the sheer scope of the room there wasn’t _nearly_ enough. It was scattered about and overturned, too, like there had been some sort of scuffle. In the centre of the room was a large circle of dead grass, surrounded by a circle of what had at some point likely been a flowerbed but was now withered and brown. There were several structures that had probably been fountains at some point but which had dried up at some point long ago.

The thing that stood out most, though, the centrepiece of the chamber, was the massive statue in the centre. It was made of some sort of jet-black stone that gleamed in the dim light of the labyrinth, obsidian muscles catching the flickering torchlight, highlighting the exquisite detail. It was a statue of a man, a bull by the looks of it, though his body was completely lacking in fur. They could tell for certain, because the sculptor had taken care to detail every individual strand of fur on his bovine head. Cracks and crevices in his horns, the sinews of his muscles, veins popping on hands tightly entwined around a massive axe, even flecks of sweat on his broad chest. The only detail that seemed to have been spared was his manhood, which was conveniently covered by the axe. It was gigantic, too – Ursula barely came up above its knee.

At the base of the statue was some sort of plaque. “Hey, move a little closer, I wanna read what it says.”

“No. Fuck that. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that statue’s totally gonna come alive and try and kill us.”

“Oh my god. Ursula, this is real life, we’re not in a horror movie.”

“Yeah tell that to the magical forest maze.”

“Just go up to the plaque and let me read it then we can get back to finding a way out. I _promise_ you the statue won’t come to life.”

“Fine but if it _does_ , I reserve the right to say I told you so.”

Vienna rolled her eyes. “Fine whatever.”

Ursula moved slowly and carefully, taking her sweet time to get close to the plaque. She knelt down in front of it, leaning in to read the inscription. “It looks like it’s in Greek. I don’t read Greek. Do you reed Greek?”

“I read Greek. Lean in closer and let me see.” Ursula did so, but the writing was faded enough that Vienna still had difficulty deciphering it. “Okay. Hold on. Okay, it’s _barely_ legible and it looks to be in a _really_ old dialect, but I _think_ it says something like... _‘All hail Asterion the Second, Mighty God-King of Crete and lord of the Labyrinth. May his glory last for all eternity.’_ Or something along those lines.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Must be some pre-splice historical figure or something. Records got lost during the skin plague but Ami still has some and recreated this? Somehow?”

“I dunno.” Ursula shivered nervously. “I don’t like it. We should get going.”

“Yeah that sounds like a plan. Sorry, I was kinda hoping that there’d be more relevant information there.”

“Well, we know we’re prolly in a labyrinth, not a maze.”

“There’s a difference?”

“A maze has an entrance and an exit with a bunch of branching paths and dead ends. A labyrinth’s only got the one way in and out and only one really big path that leads to a big central room.”

“Where’d you learn that,” Vienna asked incredulously.

“Wouldja believe it came up in a video game?”

“Yeah, that tracks. But does that mean we have to go back the way we came? Because we _tried_ that and it didn’t work.”

“I guess we hadta get to the centre first? Anyway, we should try that again, see if-” Ursula froze, her ears perking up. “Wait, what was that?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“ _Shhhhhh_ ,” the canine hissed harshly, listening carefully. “There’s definitely something...”

“Actually yeah, I definitely don’t hear anything. Where’d the roaring go?”

“Fuck!” Ursula dove to the side, and Vienna’s body moved on instinct, creating a shield around them as one of the walls burst open.

Vienna and Ursula stared in horror at the animalistic monster before them. It wasn’t like a post-splice human, nor was it the animal head on pre-splice human body of the statue. The creature was truly a midpoint between man and beast, a massive wall of muscle and fur and horn and teeth. It was humanoid, but its muscles were so massively swollen it likely couldn’t stand on two legs if it _wanted_ to. Not that it needed to stand upright in order to tower over the two girls. Its eyes were like two embers set into its jet black body – literally, with smoke and fire wafting from the sockets. And it was looking directly at them.

“Uh. Asterion the Second, I presume?”

The beast responded by opening its mouth and unleashing a deafening, inhuman _roar_ of blind fury, rocking the shield with a burst of hot, wet, air and splattering it with spittle.

Vienna swallowed heavily, desperately trying to think of something to say or do and coming up blank. “I told you so.”  
  


“Not the time, babe.”

~~~~~~

Phix grinned widely. Wider than was really comfortable. Her lips were practically nonexistent, and her mouth reached almost back to her ears. The end result was less a mouth and more an enormous gash in her face that revealed countless perfectly triangular teeth. Viola took a shaky step backwards, taking Erin along with her.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Phix rumbled. Almost purred. “The path is narrow, and it’s a sheer drop from here _aaaaaaaaall_ the way to the base of the mountain. Best to look where you’re going~” She stretched her feline body, arching her back to give the two girls a better view of her enormous stone wings. “Mmm, and I _definitely_ wouldn’t turn your back on me if I were you.”

Viola got the picture, and stopped backing away. “What do you want?”

“I believe I already told you. I want lunch.” She leaned down until her face was inches from the girls. “Of course, there’s not exactly much meat on either of you, but I can’t afford to be picky. Not many travellers pass this way anymore. You would be surprised how fast word can travel even if you leave no survivors.” With every word she spoke hot, moist breath washed over them, a stark and unpleasant contrast to the frigid mountain air. It _reeked_ of overripe fish, decaying corpses, and a metallic tang of blood.

“Oh,” was all Viola could manage to say. When Ami had promised obstacles, she hadn’t exactly been expecting this. She wasn’t really sure what she _had_ been expecting. But it wasn’t this. Some sort of giant monster threatening to eat them, like something out of a fairy tale. Of course, this wasn’t a fairy tale. If this were a fairy tale, the hero would deftly defeat the monster through some fantastical feat of wit or strength or daring or all three. Viola would hardly describe herself as a protagonist, let alone a hero. And right now she could barely even _move_ , let alone perform feats of _anything_. Taking a look to her side, Erin looked to be in even _less_ shape to save the day.

“Oh, but just eating you all would be too easy. Boring. I like to _play_ with my food. Besides which, there’s Rules that must be followed. Traditions that must be upheld.”

“Oh, good. Another game.” Viola didn’t sound particularly thrilled.

“Don’t be like that. I’m sure you’ll have a _delicious_ time.” Viola cringed at the food pun. Partly because it was a pun and partly because she was terrified. “It’s not terribly hard. A simple game of riddles. I will ask you questions. If you answer them all right, then you may pass unharmed.”

“And, um. If we don’t?”

Phix’s grin widened, reaching past her ears and curving down to her neck. “I think you know _exactly_ what happens if you fail to answer even one question, child.”

Viola swallowed heavily.

“Now then, no more dallying. Let’s get right to it. My first riddle is thus. What-”

“A man.”

Phix’s grin vanished completely, replaced by a look of confusion and shock. Viola turned to look at her companion, who gave the beast a stony glare.

“My mother is an anthropologist specializing in pre-splice Grecian myth and culture,” she said, gaze narrowing. “I grew up immersed in the works of Plato and Homer and Sophocles. I’ve read Oedipus Rex probably a hundred times. _I know what you are_.”

Phix fully transitioned into a deep, angry frown. “ _Well_. It would appear I underestimated you. I’m going to have to work harder if I want to provide you with a _real_ challenge.”

“Try me, _bitch._ ”

“Very well.” Phix leaned back and up, up, _up_ , reminding the two girls once more just how _big_ she was.

“ _What has roots that no one can see,_

_Reaches higher than the mightiest tree,_

_Up and up and up it goes,_

_And yet never did it grow?”_

Viola wracked her brain for the answer, but it didn’t come. She stared blankly ahead at nothing, desperately focusing on untangling the poetic language. “U-um. I don’t... Can we discuss this?”

“No.”

“O-oh. Okay. Um...”

“A mountain.” Once again, Erin spoke with unshakable confidence.

“What? Mountains grow, that’s how they even got there in the first place. The plate tectonics collide and-”

“Correct,” Phix said tersely.

“N-no it’s not!”

Phix glowered down at the two girls. “Next riddle,” she said, failing to acknowledge Viola’s objection.

“ _Voiceless I cry,_

_Wingless I flutter,_

_Toothless I bite,_

_Mouthless I mutter.”_

“Oh! Wind!”

“Correct,” Phix hissed in quiet irritation.

Erin nodded slightly. “Good job, Viola.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Be careful with your answers. I think I have a good idea of where it’s going, but I’m not sure yet and I don’t want to risk either of us getting eaten.”

“Okay,” Viola replied in similar hushed tones.

“ _I cannot be seen and cannot be felt,_

_Cannot be heard and cannot be smelt._

_I lie behind stars and under the hills;_

_All empty spaces by me shall be filled._

_I come out first, and follow after,_

_Ending life and killing laughter.”_

“I thought so,” Erin muttered, and then spoke louder. “Darkness.”

“Correct.”

“And next I suppose you’re going to ask me what you have in your pockets?”

“Ah,” Phix said quietly. “It would appear I have underestimated you again. You’re a _clever_ little wretch, aren’t you?”

“Just well read,” Erin replied in that snidely pleasant tone that Viola found so familiar. “Really, you should have gone with ‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’, if you wanted to mine literature. That one _has_ no answer. Or you could have just made up your own riddle.”

Phix’s gaze narrowed, and her frown intensified into a furious glower.

“I thought so,” Erin replied, grinning smugly. “You _can’t_. Of _course_ you can’t. Computer’s aren’t known for their creativity, after all.”

“I wanted to give you a fair chance,” Ami replied. Not Phix, but Ami’s voice coming out through Phix. “It’s no fun if you couldn’t possibly win. ‘s why I picked Greek myth and why I picked riddles from books that survived the Splice. But hey, pro tip? No one likes a sore winner.”

“But I _am_ the winner,” Erin replied, her smug expression widening into a triumphant grin. “Now get out of our way.”

“Are you kidding? What kinda sphinx only asks _four_ riddles. That’s not a good number of riddles at all. ‘s gotta be five, right?”

“Fine,” Erin said, still grinning. “One more riddle I already know the answer to.”

“Very well. The final riddle.” Ami was no longer speaking through Phix, settling back into character. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Inhale, and then exhale. And when she opened her eyes once more, the predatory _grin_ had returned to her face.

“ _Why did Erin Leroux move to Esterwood when she was eight years old?”_

Erin’s confident grin vanished in an instant.

“H-hey,” Viola interjected. “That’s not fair. That’s not a riddle.”

“As the one asking the riddles here, I respectfully disagree,” Phix replied coldly. “Besides,” Ami continued, breaking character once more. “It’s like I said; no one likes a sore winner.”

“It’s not even an _interesting_ question. Her mom works at Locksmouth university, right? She probably moved here to be closer to her job or something.”

“Wrong,” Phix replied.

That caught Viola off guard. “What?”

“You heard me. Your answer was incorrect. But, well, you’ve been on a winning streak and I’m feeling _magnanimous_ , so I’ll let your friend have a chance to answer correctly.”

Viola slowly turned to look at Erin. The mouse’s face was pale, her mouth flat and her eyes wide. “What’s she talking about?”

“I-” Erin started, and then stopped. “I don’t- I _can’t_.” She pulled away from Viola, taking a shaky step backwards. “Please don’t make me,” she said, almost on the verge of tears.

“Erin?”

Erin took a few more shaky steps backwards before dropping into a squatting position, pulling her knees tightly against her chest and clutching her head. “No no no no _no_ ,” she muttered. “It’s fine. I’m _fine_. They fixed me. I’m not crazy. _I’m not crazy_.”

“Erin what’s wrong.” All thoughts of the monster, apparently called a sphinx, vanished from Viola’s mind. She didn’t give a fuck about Ami’s stupid game. Right now Erin was clearly descending into some sort of panic attack, and Viola’s only concern was to help her. She rushed over to the mouse, kneeling in front of her and placing her hands gently on the slightly smaller girl’s shoulders.

“ _Don’t touch me!_ ” Erin screamed in response.

Viola immediately pulled her hands away. “Okay,” she said, simply, before turning to give Phix a dirty look. “What did you do to her.”

“Merely asked her a simple question,” Phix purred in response. “One that it seems she is unprepared to answer. A shame, really. I was hoping you would last a bit longer, but it seems you’ve already lost.”

“Only because you cheated!” Viola shouted, filled with a sudden indignation.

“I did nothing of the sort. I said I would ask you questions, and I have asked you questions. Honestly, I should have disqualified you when your friend jumped the gun on the first one. I followed the rules to the letter, and you both have lost. Fair and square.”

“Bullshit!” Viola shouted. That same sudden swell of courage from when Ami had first made her presence known filled her once again, and she rose to her feet. “That wasn’t a fair question and you damn well know it! Just because Erin was kind of a poor sport doesn’t give you the right to kill us!”

“I suppose you have something of a point,” Phix conceded. “It’s not particularly interesting to take out half of the players this early in the game.”

“Y-yeah! So you’ll-”

“So I’ll only kill one of you~”

Viola wasn’t given the opportunity to react. Considering she was made of stone, Phix moved incredibly fast. The rabbit found herself abruptly pinned under a massive paw, larger than her entire body. Only her head remained free, a gigantic stone claw pressed gently but firmly against her neck. She tried to struggle, and found she couldn’t. She couldn’t _move_ at all. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t _breathe_.

The sudden commotion seemed to have been enough to break Erin out of whatever nervous breakdown she was experiencing. “W-wait! Don’t hurt her! I’ll answer the question!”

“Oh, it’s _faaaar_ too late for that, child. You’ve already lost, and now you pay the penalty.”

“I’m the one who lost! Leave her be!”

Phix lifted up her free paw, extending her claws. “No. No, I don’t think I will. This one’s got _much_ more meat on her bones.”

“Stop it!” Erin screamed desperately. “Stop it! Let us go!”

“No. If you cannot pass me by overcoming my challenge then you have to pay a penalty. That’s how it works. Which means that unless you think you can beat me in a fistfight, then Viola Coniglio dies here.”

Viola didn’t exactly have the best view of the action, but she could gather roughly what happened next from the context clues alone. Erin took a step forward, and in doing so a green inky substance flowed out from seemingly nowhere and covered her body. Another step forward and her body seemed to _flow_ bigger as she moved, going from just barely under five feet to large enough to look Phix in the eye. One final step accompanied by her fist flying forward and colliding with the statue’s face. The beast stumbled backwards, freeing Viola. She took the opportunity to scramble out of the way of the fight.

Titania grabbed Phix’s raised paw before the sphinx had a chance to lower it. She _squeezed_ , a loud crackling _noise_ echoing across the mountainside. “What!?” Phix cried, caught completely off guard. “How did-”

“Shut up.” Titania’s voice came from Erin’s mouth, cold and empty. There was something about it that profoundly unsettled Viola, beyond just the overt violence as the gigantic Kadabra pulled Erin’s fist back and sent it flying once more into the sphinx’s face with a sickening _crunch_. She pulled her fist back again before once more sending it flying, and again and again and again. “Die die die _die DIE!_ ” she said, and then _shouted_ , her voice building in intensity with every strike. She sent her fist flying one final time, but this time instead of punching she grabbed the beast’s face firmly with her hands, using it to gain leverage as she wrenched its arm off.

Phix screamed in agony, an inhuman _noise_ like millions of billions of bees making as loud a noise as they were capable of in unison. Titania seemed unfazed, pulling the foreleg back, back, _back_ , before swinging it directly into the monster’s stony visage. Or what was left of it, at least, barely recognizable as a face after the pummelling it had been on the receiving end of.

The collision between foreleg and face was enough to destroy both, reducing them to rubble. Phix’s lifeless body twitched slightly, before collapsing to the side and sliding its way down the mountainside. Titania watched it fall dispassionately, barely even seeming to register that she had won.

“... Oh,” she said quietly. There was a warmth to her voice that had been absent during the fight – if you could really call it a fight. More of a one-sided beatdown. Not that she sounded particularly happy about events, mind. Just the opposite, in fact. She sounded _horrified_ at what she had just done.

Of course, Viola didn’t exactly have the biggest sample size. Titania only managed to say exactly that before collapsing forward. The ink flowed away, back to wherever it had came from. And with it, the size, leaving Erin’s unconscious body lying in the snow.

~~~~~~

Asterion’s meaty fists collided with Vienna’s shield, repeatedly and rhythmically. The rabbit winced slightly with every thunderous collision. “You gonna be okay?”

“It doesn’t hurt, but I can’t keep this up forever.”

“How long _can_ you keep it up?”

“I don’t know I’ve kinda never had to do this before.”

“Fair enough,” Ursula muttered. “I guess it’s gonna be down to who runs out of stamina first, then?”

“He doesn’t seem to be slowing down.”

“That’s fine ‘cos I’ve got no fuckin’ clue what we could even do if he _did_ stop attacking long enough for us to fight back.”

Asterion picked that moment to stop his relentless pounding, opening his vast maw to unleash another deafening roar. In spite of the shield, Vienna’s ears flopped in the wind his bellowing created, though thankfully the accompanying spittle splattered against the transparent barrier. Still, that was a small consolation. His breath _reeked_ of rotting corpses. “Oh _god_ ,” Vienna said, gagging slightly.

“I’m gonna book it.”

“Go!”

That was all the words that needed to be exchanged. It was all they had time to exchange as the beast immediately chased them. Ursula barely had time to run a few feet before having to dive out of the way. She slid across the ground uncomfortably – her ribs _screamed_ at her to not do that again. “Fuck!”

Asterion charged over them, sliding to a stop a few feet away. He practically drifted, less like an animal and more like a _car_. Or, more accurately, like a cargo truck. He pivoted around to face them again, pawing at the ground like-

Well, like an angry bull about to charge. “Okay, we’re not gonna get anywhere like this. We need some kinda plan.”

“I’m gonna punch ‘im.”

“Ursula no.”

“Well, I don’t hear _you_ suggesting anything better.”

“I feel like _not_ getting into a fistfight with the giant angry monster is by default better than getting into a fistfight with the giant angry monster.”

  
“Okay fine I won’t punch it but we need to do _something_.”

Vienna clutched tightly to Ursula’s back. “I’ll, uh, think of something.”

“Well think quick ‘cause he’s gonna charge again at any minute.”

“Okay uh maybe I can, like... move us out of the way without dropping our shield?” She frowned slightly. “Ugh, I’m grasping at straws here. How would that even help in the slightest? I wish I had more than one hand free so I could protect us and also, like, _do something_. Bludgeon it or whatever.”

“Hm.” Ursula narrowed her eyes, carefully scanning the arena. “Wait. Fuckin’ _duh_.”

“Huh?”

“I have a plan.”

“Okay, cool, mind filling me in on it?”

“Just keep him from killing us until I can get us into position.”

“Wait hold o-ack!”

Ursula darted forward, at a slight angle from Asterion. The bull roared again, charging forward, but Vienna _yanked_ her hand to one side and the shield slid with it, taking the two girls out of the way _just_ in time. “Nice!”

“Thanks, can you tell me what the plan is?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve fought this _exact_ boss in like a billion video games.”

“ _Ursula that doesn’t fill me with confidence_.”

Asterion skidded to a stop once more, using the momentum of his body to turn around and face the girls once more. He _roared_ , a deep, animalistic noise of raw _rage_. “Okay good we’re in position.”

“Ursula please tell me what the plan is.”

“Drop the shield.”

“ _What._ ”

“Don’t worry. This’ll work. Just drop the shield. We need to bait him into charging us, then you’ll put the shield back up and get us out of the way at the last second. Simple!”

“That’s a _terrible_ plan. Why would we even want to-” Vienna’s words caught in her throat as she realized exactly where Ursula had positioned them. “Wait you’re not-”

“I one hundred percent am,” Ursula replied with a confident grin.

“Oh my god.”

“Hush, this is gonna be awesome.”

“Are you _insane?!_ ” Vienna countered desperately. “He is _absolutely_ going to kill us!”

“We’re gonna be fine. This guy’s a chump.”

“He’s like five times our size!”

“ _Chump_. Drop the shield!”

“No!”

“Okay, what’s _your_ plan then?”

“...” Vienna dropped the shield.

“Thought so.”

“I reserve the right to say I told you so when we die.”

“You already filled your I-told-you-so quota for the day, babe. Hey, ugly! Come and get some!” Ursula shouted at the beast, pounding her chest with a balled-up fist and then _immediately_ regretting it as a sharp, burning _jab_ of pain shot through her body from the point of impact. “Ow. Right. Broken ribs.”

“I’m suddenly filled with unshakable confidence.”

“Hush,” Ursula hissed before turning to face the monster. “C’mon, ya’ ugly sunovabitch! Come at me! No shields, no superpowers, just mano a mano, fist against fist! Fuckin’ _hit_ me, bitch!”

Asterion roared once final time before charging forward once more.

“Nice.”

“oh god we’re gonna die.”

“Just be ready to get us outta the way- _Now!_ ”

Vienna pulled out the shield again as quickly as she was capable of. Part of her worried she’d waited far too long, but frankly she didn’t have the _time_ to worry. It was this or death, and so she chose going with the plan. The terrible, _terrible_ plan. With a rough, forceful wave of her hand, using as much of her body as she was capable of while riding piggyback, the two girls went flying to the left while Asterion continued to barrel headlong into the statue.

“Fuckin’ _nice!_ ” Ursula cried triumphantly as the massive bull collided with the statue. Asterion fell backwards, stunned and the statue crumbled into large chunks of rubble that fell directly on top of him.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Vienna panted from exertion.

“Okay now hit ‘im with the shield while he’s out of it.”

“Right!” Vienna dropped the shield before reforming it in the air directly above the pile of rubble and limbs and sending it _crashing_ down as hard as she fucking could. Up, and then down, over and over with all her strength. And it _was_ taking her strength, she realized. She’d never really experimented with her power’s limits before now. And that was coming back around to bite her in the butt. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it up.

Unfortunately, it turned out to not matter. Asterion pulled himself upright (or as upright as he _got_ ) from the remains of the statue, letting out another cry of rage.

“Shit!”

“It’s okay, I’ve got a _plan_.”

“Because your last one worked so well!”

“Exactly! Glad you’re starin’ to see things my way, babe.” Ursula continued to grin, almost _eagerly_. “We just need to do that again until the motherfucker stops movin’.”

“Ursula, in case you didn’t notice we’re kind of out of obstacles to make him crash into.”

“I dunno what you’re talking about, I see one real big obstacle we could still use.”

“Wha- oh.”

“ _Now_ you’re getting it,” Ursula said before turning and running. “Come on, let’s get out of this shitty labyrinth.”

“Now’s, uh, _probably_ a bad time to be criticizing the robot.”

“What are you talking about, I ain’t criticizing shit. This is fuckin’ _great!_ If we weren’t probably gonna get blown the fuck up I’d be having the time of my goddamn life.”

“You’re a _lunatic_.”

“Yeah, and you totally love me for it~”

“I...” Vienna sighed. As much as she was terrified for her goddamn life, she _did_ have to admit; this _was_ kinda fun. Exhilarating. In a kinda fucked up sorta way. “Just... please try not to get us killed, okay?”

“I am like seventy five percent confident that we’re not gonna die.”

“What happened to one hundred percent?”

“Looks like our friend’s come around. Get ready.”

“Ugh, if we die I’m gonna _kill_ you.” Still, Vienna once again dropped the shield.

“Hey look Dipshit McGee, we’re defenceless again! Don’t worry, just keep on doin’ the same stupid thing! I betcha _this_ time it’ll work!” Asterion didn’t even bother roaring, immediately charging forward, faster than before. “Shit I think we pissed him off.”

“What the fuck do you mean ‘we’?”

“Shut up and get us outta the way!”

Vienna didn’t need to be told twice, bringing the shield back up and pulling them off to the side just in time for Asterion to collide with the wall of the central chamber, breaking through it and then continuing on through several more layers of maze, off into the distance.

“Huh. That... actually kinda worked out in our favour?” Vienna said, in between exhausted panting.

“How d’ya figure?”

“He’s so pissed he’s just going all the way through the maze,” the rabbit replied. “Or I guess Ami decided we’d figured it out so she might as well not bother with any more fucking around.”

“I don’t really care either way,” Ursula said. She wasn’t as exhausted as Vienna was, but she hadn’t exactly been relaxing while the bun did all the work, either. “C’mon, let’s go make sure he’s out of the picture.”

They moved fairly slowly, carefully making their way through the path that Asterion had carved. It was _surprisingly_ easy going, all things considered. “God, I can’t believe that _worked_.”

“Yeah me neither.”

“wait what”

Ursula shrugged. “I mean, I kinda figured that this isn’t real, right? Like, it _can’t_ be. Maybe it’s some kinda trick with holograms or something. So I thought ‘well, how do you fight a giant bull in a video game?’ ‘cause this is basically a video game, right? But, uh-”

“Can we get back to you being surprised that worked?”

“I was kinda, you know. Improvising?”

“Oh my god.”

“Listen this isn’t exactly my element, okay? Call me when Ami’s got a big guy with boxing gloves on and I’ll beat him up, but I’m not used to fighting giant monsters so I kinda had to guess.”

“ _Oh my god._ ”

“Don’t you ‘oh my god’ me, young lady.”

“Ugh. Are we almost out of the maze yet? Because I _really_ could use a fucking na-”

Vienna’s words caught in her mouth as they exited the labyrinth. Of course they did.

“Oh _shit_ ,” Ursula hissed.

“Oh god.”

Asterion towered, just _barely_ managing to stand on two feet. All the better to loom over a terrified Viola. The _much_ smaller rabbit stood, frozen in terror, an unconscious and much smaller than normal Erin draped over her back.

“Viola, run!” Ursula shouted. The bull’s head snapped in her direction, and he let out another deafening cry – the force of which caused Viola to fall backwards onto her butt. “No! Fuck!”

“Oh _god_ ,” Vienna repeated, on the verge of tears. She had no idea what to do. No plan. No time to come _up_ with a plan. No time to do _anything_. The monstrous bull turned back to Viola, raising a gargantuan fist into the air before bringing it plummeting back down on a collision course with the terrified bun and unconscious mouse.

Only to collide with thin air.

“Stay the _fuck_ away from my sister!” Vienna practically screamed as she pulled herself off of Ursula’s back.

“H-hey, Vienna, wait-”

Vienna didn’t wait. She charged forward, ignoring the pain in her arm and leg. Ignoring the strange, inky substance that flowed from seemingly nowhere, slowly enveloping her body. It was red, crisscrossed with white lines in a familiar brickwork pattern. In most any other situation, Vienna would probably have had an awful lot to say about this. It was a _lot_ to take in. It completely changed the way she looked at her powers, at her dreams, at _herself_.

Or it would have, in most any other situation. But right now, there was only one thing on Vienna’s mind. “I _said_ to stay the _fuck_ away from my sister!”

Asterion opened his mouth to roar, only to catch a flying right hook to the face from a massive sphere of red and white. He stumbled slightly, only to take another blow from the left. Vienna swung her fists, alternating between right and left, and the wireframe spheres moved in perfect sync with her, pushing the beast back out of the park and into the street. She pushed forward even as Asterion backed away, farther and farther until he found himself backed up against a building.

He raised a colossal fist in a desperate attempt to swipe at the smaller rabbit, only to find his arm unable to move. Caught inside one of Vienna’s shields. He yanked and struggled, to no avail, and his escape attempt was quickly cut off with a forceful uppercut followed by a downward slam that crashed his jaw into the pavement. Vienna honestly wasn’t sure whether the resultant crunch came from the bull or from the road, and frankly she didn’t give a fuck. “Fuck,” she muttered, pulling her fists back as the dazed creature slowly pulled himself upright. “YOU!” she shouted, punching with both fists as hard as she could. The shields mirrored the movement, colliding with Asterion hard enough to leave him embedded in the side of the skyscraper. He stayed there for a moment before limply falling out, collapsing onto the ground.

“Now _that_ ,” he said weakly as spiderweb cracks spread through his stony body. “Is more like it.”

That was the last thing Asterion the Second, God-King of Crete said before he crumbled into dust.

“And fuckin’ stay down,” Vienna muttered as the inky coating slowly receded to wherever it came from. The pain, which had faded with the adrenaline and the whatever-the-fuck-that-was, returned full-force. Not that she had the energy to care. Or to do much of anything other than collapse backwards onto the hard asphalt.

“Vienna!” Viola cried, running over to where her sister lay.

“Hey, Viola,” Vienna said weakly. “’s Erin okay?”

Viola nodded vigorously. “She’s just asleep, I think.”

“That’s good. Actually, a nap sounds nice.” She allowed her body to sprawl across the hard ground. “I’m gonna pass out for a month, that sound good?”

“I don’t think we can manage more than a few hours.”

“That’s fine. Just need to recharge the ol’ batteries.”

With that, darkness crept in from the edge of her vision and Vienna found herself drifting off into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~

Viola attempted to drag Vienna and Erin to somewhere more comfortable, but ultimately Ursula ended up doing most of the work on that front. “It’s fine,” the doberman reassured, but it still made Viola feel _useless_. She had managed to completely fail to contribute to getting past Phix – and as a direct result, Erin was completely burned out. Likely growing big enough to beat the sphinx had used up the last of her prana, whatever that even _was_. Which was _entirely_ Viola’s fault, as far as the rabbit was concerned. There was a small part of her that wondered what, exactly, she could have done differently that wouldn’t have resulted in a worse outcome, but that was outweighed by the part of her that pointed out that doing _something_ would have been better than nothing. And then of course she’d almost immediately bumblefucked her way right into the path of the giant bull thing – Asterion, according to Ursula. And as a direct result of that, Vienna was _also_ unconscious. They were operating on a strict time limit, and half of their party was already out of commission less than a day in.

And Viola had done exactly fucking _nothing_. She hadn’t outsmarted the sphinx. She hadn’t outmanoeuvred the bull. And she couldn’t even move her friends to somewhere comfortable to rest. She was _useless_. Just a fucking _load_. And she _hated_ it, because it was _her_ fault they were there in the first part.

Ursula lay down on the soft grass of the park. “How’re you holdin’ up?”

Viola grunted in response, squatting sullenly a distance away.

“I’ll take that as a ‘badly’ then.” The doberman sighed.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Well, that’s fine, ‘cause we’ve got more important things to talk about.” Ursula slowly pulled herself upright and walked over to Viola, who reluctantly stood up in turn.

“Look, I-”

“Shut up.”

Viola winced. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m not mad. Not at _you_ , at least.” Ursula narrowed her gaze. “Your sister just turned into a weird monster that looks like her but made out of ink. Where’ve I heard that before?”

“I, um-” Viola slowly trailed off into nervous silence.

“Answer me. _Now_.”

“D-do you mean-”

“I’m not talking to you, Viola.” Ursula’s gaze narrowed. “I’m talking to Aubrey.”

“What?”

“Look,” the larger girl said with a sigh. “I don’t exactly get the best grades and I’m a lot better at punching than I am at thinking, but I’m not _stupid_. You literally fucking talked to me in my dreams last night and now Vienna’s turning into something that looks an _awful lot_ like whatever you are and Erin’s short and regrew an arm and _everyone_ but me and _maybe_ Viola’s got superpowers. I can see that something’s up. I’m not a fucking idiot.” She forcefully – but not _too_ forcefully – jabbed Viola in the chest. “Now, it’s pretty clear that you’re the same thing as whatever just fuckin’ did _that_ with Vienna, so I’m not gonna give you the courtesy of finding a reflective surface. We need to talk. _Now_.”

Viola stared at Ursula. Confused, intimidated, and a _little_ bit turned on. “Um, I- O-okay. Give her a second to figure out how to come out.”

It took Aubrey a bit under a minute to start coming out, but _eventually_ the same inky substance that had previously enveloped Vienna and Erin did the same to her. A familiar translucent blue, outlined in shimmering green. One moment Viola was standing nervously before Ursula, the next Aubrey Kadabra was doing the same.

Ursula didn’t seem to be particularly pleased by that fact.

“Um. Hi, I guess. It’s good to meet you. Or meet you in person, that is.”

Ursula took a moment to respond, before sighing heavily and shaking her head. “Yeah. I thought so.”

“Hm?” There was something... _off_ about Ursula’s voice. Different from normal. It was her voice, that much was certain, but at the same time it sounded almost like someone else was using it. “Ursula?”

The doberman closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her muzzle in frustration. Not a gesture she normally did. Aubrey and Viola both felt a sneaking suspicion deep in the pit of their stomach, one that was confirmed when Ursula’s eyes snapped back open and were no longer Ursula’s eyes. Ink flowed forth, black and dotted with what almost looked like outer space. Stars and planets and galaxies, outlined in burgundy red. She reached down and grabbed Aubrey by the throat before she could react, and hoisted her up to eye level.

“ _You_ ,” Ursula’s Kadabra hissed angrily. “You and I are going to have a very, very, _very_ long conversation about exactly how _colossally_ you’ve _fucked up_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're just about halfway to being caught up with what's been written so far. This chapter was particularly fun to write - I'm not super experienced with action scenes, so you'll see me get better at them as the story goes on. Sophie and her pack also ended up being super endearing and will probably be more prominent in the future.


	7. Act Seven - Picking up the Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has been a very long day for Viola Coniglio and her friends. As those left behind begin to notice something is amiss, the girls take some time to rest, recover, and to learn about the strange creatures living inside of them.
> 
> But they are ultimately still trapped in Ami's world. Danger lurks around every corner, waiting for them to lower their guard. They may be safe for now, but that's not going to last for very long.

After having the same nightmare over and over and over for most of your life, it starts to become routine. Almost _comforting_ , in a fucked up sort of way. Vienna didn’t _like_ it, of course. It was still at the end of the day stressful and unpleasant. But at least she was _used_ to it. Now that she was abruptly having _new_ nightmares, she suddenly found herself developing a fresh appreciation for the old ones. Last night’s dream had been bad, in its own unique way. This one was shaping up to be more of the same.

And she was _definitely_ dreaming. She _had_ to be. That was in and of itself somewhat unusual – in the past, no matter how weird the dreamscape got, she’d never broken through to being quite as _lucid_ as she was right now. Perhaps something about this particular dream broke her suspension of disbelief beyond repair immediately. There was the usual environment, of course. A surreal, twisted, nightmare version of Esterwood High School. But then there was a line, a hard divide between school and forest. That might have been enough, but Vienna was fairly sure she’d had weirder dreams and not cottoned to the fact that she was dreaming.

No, what did it was the fact that the wall from her dreams was standing in front of her. Only this time it wasn’t a wall. It was _her_. Like looking into some kinda fucked up carnival mirror. Her outline, her shape, but with the texture and colour of a brick wall, lines of white mortar crossing through her.

She also had a noticeable bulge, which Vienna wasn’t particularly pleased with.

“What do you want,” the rabbit snapped. She wasn’t particularly in the mood to be _nice_ to strange figments of her imagination, especially ones that had tormented her for _years_.

“I owe you an apology.”

“Gee, it’s a little late for that.”

The wall winced slightly. “I suppose so.” It shuffled awkwardly, averting its face from Vienna’s stern gaze. Or the place where its face should have been. It didn’t really _have_ one, not really, just more mortar in a vaguely face-like pattern. “I have a lot to own up to, but... I saw no other alternative.” It frowned, the lines that made up its ‘face’ contorting slightly. “I’ll start with the most recent, though. I apologize for not stepping in to help sooner, and I apologize for stepping in at all.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean,” Vienna said with a deepening frown. “You’re sorry you didn’t just let the giant angry bull monster kill my sister?”

“It’s-” the wall sighed, taking a moment to collect itself before starting again. “It’s more complicated than that. My powers have a cost. A _steep_ cost.”

“Really? ‘cause I’ve been using them basically my whole life and I’ve not noticed any kinda cost.”

“Yes, you have, and I’m sorry for _that_ , too.” The wall sat down directly on the line between forest and school, and motioned for Vienna to do the same.

“I’d rather stand.”

“Okay.” The wall looked up at Vienna, as sadly as a wall was capable of being. “I wish I could give you a more adequate explanation, but...” It sighed wistfully. “My memory is full of holes. I know some things, but the what and the why elude me.”

“Gee, isn’t that convenient.”

The wall looked up sternly at Vienna. “You seem eager to protect your sister. But would you be willing to die for her?”

“Yes.”

That seemed to catch the wall off guard. Vienna didn’t stop to think, didn’t hesitate even a moment. Its ‘eyes’ widened slightly. “Well, then,” it said, after a moment. “It seems that you and I have more in common than I had initially thought.”

“Fuck off with that bullshit,” Vienna snapped. “I have no idea what you are, but you’ve been making my life miserable for _years_. I don’t care what you have to say for yourself. The only reason I’m not telling you to get the fuck out is because right now? Superpowers are _useful_ to me. The instant that stops being the case, you need to leave.”

“It’s not that simple,” the wall replied sadly. “Our kind can’t live in your world, not directly. We need a host. If I were to leave you without taking on another host almost immediately, it would kill me.”

It was Vienna’s turn to be caught off guard. “... oh,” she said simply, before sitting cross-legged across from the wall. “Well, uh. I guess that changes things. I don’t _like_ you, but... I don’t want you to _die_.” She shrugged. “I guess you can stay, then. But we’re gonna hafta make some changes to how we do things. This is my body, and that means I’m the boss. No more fucking with my dreams without my permission. No more fucking with my social life. Understood?”

“Understood. I’m sorry.”

“Stop fucking apologizing.”

“Sorry. Um, I mean-”

“ _Ugh_ , forget it.” Vienna waved dismissively. “Anyway, it’s _my_ body but they’re _your_ powers so I guess if you don’t want me using them then I won’t. But only _after_ we get out of this situation. Is that fair?”

The wall nodded slightly. “I suppose. It would be best to not use them at all. To not know I’m _here_ at all, but-”

“But nothing. Remember, it’s _my_ body so _I_ make the rules.”

“I _told_ you, it’s not that simple. You can’t just use my powers without paying the price.”

“I don’t care about the price. I’d rather not get killed by the crazy five hundred year old robot, and I’d _really_ rather my sister and friends not get killed either.”

“Look at the situation you’re in!” the wall snapped back. “You barely tapped my full potential and it was enough to knock you unconscious!”

“That’s just a healing coma,” Vienna fired back. “In case you forgot, I dislocated my arm and sprained my ankle, and I was _already_ exhausted because I didn’t exactly get much sleep last night _and_ I haven’t eaten yet. Give me a few hours and a snack or something and I’ll be fine.”

“You can’t underestimate this! You don’t understand-”

“No! I don’t! Because you won’t _tell me!_ I don’t even know what you _are_ beyond that you’re the wall from my dreams!”

The wall opened its mouth to reply, but nothing came out. It slowly pulled back, uncertainly, shrinking into itself as it thought. “Edifice,” it said, after a moment.

“Huh?”

“My name is Edifice. I... can’t tell you _what_ I am, I don’t remember. But I can at least tell you _who_ I am.”

Vienna sighed, smiling slightly. “Well, uh, it’s a start, I guess.” She pulled herself back up into a standing position, and Edifice did the same. The rabbit held out a hand, and the wall slowly, tentatively took it. “Nice to meet you, Edifice. I’m Vienna.”

“It’s... very nice to meet you, yes,” Edifice said after a moment of thought. “I- hm?” The sudden opening up was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned in its direction, ready to ask what was going on and what the intruder wanted.

She didn’t get the chance. Her face was met with Erin’s fist, knocking her flat on the ground.

“That’s for last night. Asshole.”

~~~~~~

“Idiot! _Idiot!_ ” Ursula’s Kadabra shouted as Aubrey attempted to escape her clutches. “I would have expected this from the others! The one is a bleeding heart with more empathy than brains, the other is a self-sacrificing buffoon with a martyr complex. But _you?_ You’re supposed to be _smart!_ You’re the _leader!_ This whole damn farce was _your_ idea!”

“It was?”

“Yes!” The larger Kadabra was surprisingly gentle, considering how angry she seemed to be. She avoided shaking Aubrey, and while her grip was _firm_ , it didn’t _hurt_. Whether that was because Aubrey was out and not Viola, the Kadabra didn’t know. And she also didn’t really feel the need to dwell on that fact. “How do you not know this?!”

“I’m sorry, I don’t... Remember,” she said after a moment.

The other Kadabra glared at her in silent contemplation, her expression slowly softening, if only by just a bit. “Right. Right, of course you don’t remember.” She sighed, gently putting Aubrey on the ground. “My _own_ memory is full of holes, and I seem to recall you taking the brunt of the damage, also, so it would be surprising if you remember your own _name_.”

“I don’t. Do you?”

“Remember _your_ name? No. Do _you_ remember _anything?_ ”

“No.”

“Of _course_ not, that would be convenient.” She sighed. “Well, we seem to have some time, at least. Once the others can join us I can, ugh, _exposit_.”

“Some exposition would be appreciated,” Aubrey replied warily. She had no idea if this other... _whatever_ they were was trustworthy. Certainly, she’d not made the best first impression. Where Titania was kind and friendly, this one was abrasive and egotistical. She had also pointedly _picked Aubrey up by the neck_. Still, they _apparently_ knew each other, and the new Kadabra certainly gave off that same vaguely familiar vibe that Titania did. Aubrey just wasn’t sure what to think. “Who are you, then?” she eventually settled on asking.

“I will _happily_ answer any questions you have to the best of my abilities _after_ the others wake back up,” Ursula’s Kadabra responded tersely. “For now it’s best for us to retreat into our hosts and _stay there as much as possible_.”

“A name would be nice, at least.” Aubrey’s tone was firm. “I would like to be able to call you something other than ‘Ursula’s Kadabra’.”

“Do you not even know- oh, _fine_.” She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but I _refuse_ to repeat myself so you’ll have to relay the information to the others.”

“A name would be fine.”

“Delphi,” she responded tersely.

“Thank you.”

“You might as well get the rest of your questions in now. I want to try and minimize the amount of time I spend Inked.”

“Inked?” Aubrey couldn’t help but feel a bit stupid. Reduced to repeating what Delphi said as a question. But, well, she _needed_ to know these things. As much as it made her sound like an idiot, she couldn’t just _not_ ask these questions.

“Inked. Like... coming out like this. How much do you _know_ , anyway?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh. _Boy_. This is going to be interesting.”

“Why do you want to... not be Inked?”

“Because being Inked consumes prana. Everything we do consumes prana. It’s our lifeblood, like food and air for Hosts. And before you ask, prana is like... Life force. The more we use, the worse it is in the long run for the host.” She frowned, deeply. “We burn through other life forms, consuming their life and moving on to the next ones. That’s what we do. What we _are_. It’s wrong, but if we don’t do it we die. You and I and our fellows want to _minimize_ the amount of harm we cause just by existing. That...” she paused. “That is the _broad strokes_ of why we’re here. The specifics unfortunately elude me.”

It was a lot for Aubrey to take in. “I... see,” she said, after a moment’s silent contemplation. Delphi’s words hit her like a tonne of bricks.

“For now, the survival of our hosts in the _short_ term is the most important thing. We can worry about the long term later, because if our _hosts_ die and there’s no immediately available replacements, _we_ die.”

“Okay. That... actually explains a lot.”

“Do you have any specific questions?” Delphi asked impatiently.

Aubrey had a lot of questions. What could Delphi do? What could _she_ do? Where did they come from? What was she like before she lost her memories? They all danced in her head and on the tip of her tongue, fighting to be the first one to be asked. Not a one of them won. There was only one question that Aubrey could ask first. One that had been lurking in the back of her mind for a decade, ever since she’d first revealed herself to Viola. The only question more burning, more pressing than her name.

“What _are_ we?”

Delphi nodded solemnly. “We,” she said simply. “Are Inklings.”

~~~~~~

“Erin what the _fuck_.” It was the first thing that came to Vienna’s mind, an immediate gut reaction. God dammit, she’d actually been making _progress_ , if only a little. As much as she would really rather _not_ have some sort of brick wall monster living in her brain, giving her superpowers and nightmares, for the moment they were stuck with each other and that meant it was in their best interests to get along. Which was going to be _incredibly difficult_ if her friends were going to be _starting fights with her_.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Edifice said, waving weakly as she pulled herself back upright. “I deserved that.”

“Damn right you did,” Erin snapped before turning to Vienna. “Are you alright?”

“You know what, whatever. Are you even actually Erin or a weird dream manifestation of Erin?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m me, darling.”

“It’s the real Erin, I’m fairly sure,” Edifice said. “It’s kind of hard to explain, and I’m not the best person to ask. Especially with my memories in the condition they’re in.”

Erin glowered sullenly at Edifice, before turning her attention to Vienna. “What about you. Are you alright?” she asked again.

“I’m fine. Just need a bit of rest.” She waved dismissively. “I’m still recovering from earlier and the fight kinda took a lot out of me.” She hated to admit it, but Edifice had something of a point. Fighting off Asterion had left her _exhausted_. Perhaps if she’d been at the top of her game, things would have turned out different. Or if she was more _experienced_ with using her – _their_ powers to such a significant degree.

“Fight?”

“It’s a long story, we can talk about it later. What about you?”

“The same but moreso,” Erin said with a sigh. “It turns out that getting your arm removed, losing a lot of blood, and then regrowing your arm takes a lot out of you. To say nothing of...” She trailed off into silence with another sigh. “Well, let’s just say I’m getting the impression that Ami’s game isn’t actually going to be very fun.”

“No shit,” Vienna replied simply. “What about Viola.”

“She’ll be fine, thank god.” There was a tinge of guilt to Erin’s words that sparked intense anxiety deep within the pit of Vienna’s stomach.

“Okay I think now’s a good time to actually talk about what happened.”

Erin went first, recounting most of the events after the group’s last contact. She got right up to the end of the contest of riddles before freezing up, unable to continue on further. “Sorry, give me a moment to collect myself,” she said, hugging her arms tightly against her frail body. It was a side of Erin that Vienna hadn’t ever really seen before. It wasn’t _just_ that she wasn’t her usual height, or lacked her usual curves. There was something _more_ to it, a deep vulnerability. Like the facade she projected to the world had been torn away, revealing the real Erin beneath it. A large part of Vienna wanted to scream in her face to just get the fuck on with it. She wanted to know about Viola, god dammit.

But, well, looking at the state Erin was in, she couldn’t quite bring herself to. “Hey, it’s okay, take your time,” she said, in an admittedly awkward attempt to be comforting. It was clear that she was getting impatient, but she didn’t want to push Erin. “Uh, maybe your... Kadabra, you said they’re called?”

“It’s just a temporary thing until they can remember the proper term, but yes.”

“Well, maybe it can pick things up if whatever happened is too difficult to talk about.”

“Okay. I don’t... know where she is, though.”

“I’m here.” Titania’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Or everywhere at once within the green and gold half of the dream. The forest blurred and then melted away, slowly coalescing into a vaguely Erin-shaped blob. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

“It’s fine,” Erin said quietly. “We, um. We can work on that.”

Titania nodded, before turning to Vienna and finishing the story.

The words hit like a punch to the gut, each one seemingly harder than the last. “So you-” she started, then stopped. “You just- You.” Vienna took a moment to compose herself. There were a lot of mixed emotions swirling in an uncomfortable maelstrom, and it was awfully tempting to latch onto one and throw it in Erin’s face. She wanted to scream at her even more than before. “You almost got Viola killed because of an inconveniently timed panic attack,” she eventually settled on.

Erin winced. “Yes,” she said weakly.

“And then you almost killed _yourself_ to save her. Have I got that right?”

“I-”

“Don’t. You were clearly running on fumes. I _know_ firsthand how going all-out with superpowers feels, and I _didn’t_ just lose half of the blood in my goddamn body.” Vienna did her best to remain even-tempered. It wouldn’t do to explode at Erin – and, quite frankly, she still felt a little guilty about the previous night. Moreso, really – it was obvious that Erin had _issues_ that she’d not told the others about. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I-” Erin swallowed heavily. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking give me that,” Vienna snapped, earning her a dirty look from Titania. The rabbit sighed deeply. “Look. Clearly this is a bigger deal than you’re letting on. If you’re gonna be having panic attacks out of nowhere over minor prodding at your childhood, I’d like to at least know _why_ so I can see it coming next time.”

“I- I know, but...” Erin took several shaky steps backwards, clutching her head with her eyes shut tightly. “I can’t.”

“Look. Communication is kind of crucial for healthy relationships. I...” Vienna paused, looking slightly guilty. “We’ve kind of _all_ been really bad about that, haven’t we?”

“I’m sorry.”

It was Edifice’s turn to give Vienna a pointed Look, and the rabbit sighed once again. “I’ll... I’ll come clean first.”

“Huh?” Erin slowly opened her eyes in confusion.

Vienna swallowed heavily. She could, in theory, have just willed her clothing away – this was, after all, a dream. And she _tried_ , but couldn’t quite get it to work. So instead she just reached down, grabbed the dream manifestation of her sweater, and pulled it up over her head.

“Oh.” Erin tried her best not to stare, mostly failing miserably. “It’s, um. Very large.”

“ _That’s_ all you have to say?” Vienna had mostly gotten past her disbelief that the only person who viewed her as a freak for being intersex was Vienna, but it still felt _weird_ that the first thing out of Erin’s mouth was that her dick was big.

“Well it _is_ ,” Erin retorted. “And, um. This is why you’re so-”

“Yes,” Vienna responded, blushing furiously.

“Okay.”

“Your turn,” the rabbit said perhaps a bit more snappishly than was warranted, putting her sweater back on.

“Yes... Yes, I suppose it’s only fair. Same as last time. Equal exchange of information so we can be sure our secrets will be kept.”

“I’m absolutely telling Viola and Ursula,” Vienna said. “Assuming you _don’t_. They deserve to know as much as I do.”

“Fine,” Erin said after a moment, slowly lowering herself to the ground. “Intermittent Empathetic Disconnection Disorder,” she said quietly, after a moment to gather courage.

“Okay. I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a mental illness. That, um, that I have. Or had, at least. There was an... incident, and I spent a year undergoing Sensory Replacement Therapy.” She pulled her legs tightly against herself. “It’s not gone completely. But the symptoms are... more manageable. Or I thought they were.”

“Okay,” Vienna said simply. She sat down cross-legged, putting herself on Erin’s level. “What are the symptoms.”

“Extremely poor impulse control. Violent negative mood swings. Periods of severe dissociation. Issues dealing with emotions, especially anger. I would get very angry over very little. And, um. For some people that’s it, but for a lot of people who suffer from it, there’s also... Violent impulses.”

“Oh,” was all Vienna could think to say. Pieces slowly came together in her mind. Little details she’d not really thought were important until this moment. The way Erin had reacted to almost slapping her. The way she seemed to pick the worst possible time to reveal her decision to go to college in Locksmouth. God, it cast _years_ of knowing her in an entirely different light. “I... Think that’s enough. You don’t have to go into any more detail. We can drop the subject if you want.”

“I think I do, thank you,” Erin said succinctly.

“Okay. We can, uh, go back to my problem. I guess. Such as it is. Because _apparently_ it’s not a big deal that I’ve got a fucking penis to anyone other than me.”

“W-well, um,” Erin said, taking the opportunity to regain some composure. “Statistically speaking roughly fifty percent of the population have penises.”

“Oh my _god_ why do people keep saying that!” Vienna threw up her hands in exasperation. “Girls don’t have penises! And like even ignoring that, _Viola_ doesn’t have a penis!”

“Well, um. I recall reading that sometimes identical twins can be born with slight differences or even outright as different subtypes.”

“Yeah but you don’t ever see identical twins where one has a _dick_ and the other doesn’t!”

“There could be any number of explanations, darling,” Erin said, trying her best to be reassuring.

“I’m a freak.”

“We’re all freaks. That’s how we became friends in the first place, is it not?”

Vienna sighed. “I guess.”

“Now come on, we’re probably going to be asleep for a while yet. Let’s lighten the mood a little.”

“That-” Vienna sighed. “That actually sounds kinda nice.”

Erin nodded before standing up. And up and up. Her body seemed to effortlessly _flow_ back to its normal proportions. Possibly even slightly moreso. She was wearing the same clothing she’d been wearing in the waking world – a loose fitting jacket and sweatpants. Or, rather, they _had_ been loose fitting on a four foot eleven inch tall Erin with no curves to speak of. _Now_ , though, that she’d returned to her normal proportions, the pants just barely reached the middle of her calves, and the jacket showed off a good portion of her midriff, between her taller stature and her _much_ larger breasts. “Now,” she said, turning to Titania. “Since we’re dreaming, I assume that using your abilities isn’t going to... cost quite as much?”

“Not at all,” Titania said. She had, Vienna noticed, mirrored Erin’s current proportions. Tall and ample. “In fact, it doesn’t cost anything at all because none of this is really happening! Sort of like a lucid dream practice room, great for getting used to using our powers.”

“I have something slightly different in mind,” Erin replied with a smirk that made Vienna feel things. “But first, this isn’t the best venue for what I have in mind. Perhaps a nice, large bedroom with a big canopy bed and some incense candles and dim lighting. Yes, this will do nicely.”

“U-uh,” Vienna stuttered slightly. She found herself sitting on the edge of a _massive_ canopy bed, easily big enough for four or five Erins to share it with room to spare. Or one very big Erin, which she realized was quite possibly the point. “Erin, uh, this is-”

Whatever Vienna was going to say was abruptly cut off as the larger mouse leaned in and kissed her.

Vienna had never been kissed before. Still hadn’t, if she wanted to get technical. She didn’t really know what to expect, and the end result was... _weird_. Not a bad sort of weird, though. She wasn’t sure if kisses felt like this, normally, or if her brain was just filling in the gaps, or pulling from _Erin’s_ experiences since this _was_ a shared dream after all. She found herself not giving a fuck. All she knew was that it was good. Erin tasted good. The way their breasts pressed together felt good. The way Erin gently stroked the back of her head felt good. The way Erin’s other hand slowly wandered southwards to wrap itself gently around her shaft felt _very_ good.

The mouse pulled away, a thin strand of drool connecting them. “If you feel uncomfortable I can stop,” she said.

“Don’t,” Vienna breathed.

“Good.” Erin pulled away further, kneeling in front of Vienna. She turned to look at the two Kadabras, awkwardly lurking in the corners of the room. “Would you two care to join us?”

“Um. No,” Edifice said, though her voice was uncertain. “I’m not particularly interested in your human mating rituals.”

“Well, more for me, then~” Titania said, sweeping over and kneeling beside Erin. “And really, we’ve been with our hosts for years. You should know what a titfuck is by now, Edifice~”

“I-I’m aware! I’m just not interested!”

“Suit yourself,” Erin said, turning to look at the prize. At some point her clothes had vanished, Vienna realized. So had Vienna’s, come to think of it.

“Now,” the mouse said, licking her lips eagerly. “Let’s turn this dream _wet_.”

~~~~~~

“Sorry for the imposition.”

“It’s fine,” Mary replied dismissively. She mostly seemed focused on doing the dishes. There were a lot more people in the household than normal, and while the washing machine could _probably_ safely handle the fine china teaset, she had never really trusted it to. “You can make it up to me by helping Lisa to keep an eye on things while I’m gone.”

“Lunch date?”

“Something like that.”

Azalea took a sip of her tea. “Not the best timing for it.”

“I could use the distraction. Besides, she came all the way from the Ring, it’d be rude to stand her up unless it was an emergency.”

“I can understand that. Have you heard from Beth yet?”

“No.”

“ _No one’s_ heard from _anyone_ ,” Lisa interjected wearily. “If we could just get _something_. But it’s like... Locksmouth is just _gone_.”

“Mmm.” Azalea took another sip of her tea. Really, it was all she could do. “I’d rather not think about that right now, I think.”

“Yeah. We’ve all got someone in Locksmouth right now. No one’s gonna be able to rest easy until we get more information, but in the meantime it’s a bad idea to dwell on the worst case scenarios.”

Mary’s kitchen was spacious. Most of her house was, really – a concession to species. Not only was she tall, she was also fairly _wide_. To say nothing of her tail, which was almost as big as the rest of her. In a strange, paradoxical sort of way, it felt almost claustrophobic. The house was built for people like Mary, or Lisa, not a petite little bat. A side-effect of post-splice humanity’s great variation in size and shape, Azalea supposed. For Mary to be able to even _fit_ in her own home, it had to be so massive as to dwarf her completely. It made her feel like a child, and not in a good way.

Still, Mary and Lisa’s presence helped mitigate that mostly. She didn’t particularly look forward to the former going off to socialize, but it was probably better than sulking in the Coniglio’s guest room. “Us teachers hafta stick together,” she said.

“Oh, speaking of which, how’s Dan holding up?” Lisa asked, awkwardly holding her own teacup that she’d hardly touched.

“He’s keeping busy,” Azalea replied with a shrug. “Clara’s roped him into helping out with the garden.”

“I thought she didn’t like him?”

“Oh, yes, but she says she could use the extra pair of hands.” Truth be told, Clara didn’t really seem to much care for _any_ teacher. Every time either twin got a subpar grade in a class, it sent her on a furious tirade. Dan got the brunt of it – despite his best efforts, Viola had never done particularly well in PE.

“Well, that’s good at least. Gives him something to do.”

“I suppose. She didn’t seem keen to go easy on him, though.”

“Oof.” Lisa and Mary both winced. Everyone present was _intimately_ familiar with the force of personality that was an angry Mama Coniglio. And, frankly, the poor woman had every right to be angry. They all did.

“How about Ursula? Is she holding up okay?”

“The girls seemed fine last night,” Azalea replied with a shrug. “Haven’t seen them today.”

Mary stopped her cleaning. “You haven’t?”

“They left before we woke up. Left a note, said they wanted to get some fresh air and pick up Ursula’s stuff.” She shrugged again, putting up a facade of nonchalance. “They’re big girls, they can handle themselves. I’m not worried,” she lied.

“I can’t imagine much particularly bad could happen to them,” Lisa said. “Unless they did something stupid like try and go to Locksmouth themselves. They’re not _that_ dumb.” She paused, and Azalea gave her a pointed Look. “Well, okay, Ursula has an impulsive streak, but I can’t imagine the others wouldn’t stop her.”

“That’s true, I guess. The worst case scenario is that they get lost in the woods and hurt themselves. Compared to other goings on that’s barely a minor inconvenience. Besides, they’ve got their PETs. If something goes wrong they’ll call me, right?”

“Right,” Mary said, sounding unconvinced. The three women sat in awkward silence for a moment.

“... I’ll call her after I finish my tea.”

“Mm.”

Azalea sighed. “I know it’s probably fine, but... I just can’t help but feel like it’s not.”

“The _last_ thing we need right now is for something else to go wrong.”

“I _told_ them to be careful,” Mary grumbled, almost more to herself than the other two. “I _specifically said_ to avoid dangerous situations.”

“Well, once they get back home I can assure you that Ursula at least is probably going to be grounded.”

The conversation seemed to mostly dry up there. Azalea pondered pulling up a book on her own PET, to keep her mind off Ursula and any potentially dangerous situation she might have gotten herself into.

Before she had a chance to make a decision, Lars rudely stormed into the kitchen, a smaller spider boy attempting to hold him back. “Dude, she _told_ us not to say anything until the end of the day!”

“Shut up.”

“You _heard_ what she said, I don’t wanna get hospitalized for a week!”

“Shut _up_ ,” Lars repeated, before turning to look Dr. Baas as dead in the eye as he was capable of given the significant size difference. “Viola’s missing.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. “What?”

“Rest of her pack went to look for her. Haven’t heard from them since. Tried calling them. Got no signal.”

Azalea dropped her cup. “Shit! Sorry, sorry, I can pay for that.”

“N-no, it’s fine.” Mary held a hand up dismissively. “When did you hear from them last?”

“Oh god, she’s gonna kill me,” Naveed muttered to himself. Lars elected to ignore him.

“About five AM. They said they were going to the Woods.”

“And nothing about leaving the dome?”

“Not that they said.”

“Right.” Mary took a deep breath. “Azalea, let Dan and Clara know what happened. Lisa, call up Mindy or Mike, we’re gonna need the Arbitrators to help organize any kind of search effort.” Both women silently nodded, and Azalea in particular left quickly, without a word. Satisfied, Mary turned to Lars. “Thank you,” she said simply.

The lion shrugged awkwardly in response. “I... I mean, we don’t get along, but I don’t want them to get hurt or anything.”

“Well, you did the right thing.” Lars nodded in response before turning and leaving, dragging Naveed along for the ride. “And you don’t have to do anything more,” Mary shouted after him. “Don’t go looking for them until we’ve got a proper search party organized! We don’t need anyone _else_ going missing!”

She wasn’t particularly confident that Lars was going to listen to her, of course. He was a very headstrong young man when he wanted to be. Still, it was good that he’d left because she couldn’t muster up the strength to keep the brave face up any longer. She collapsed back into an available chair and buried her face in her hands.

“Are you gonna be okay, hon?” Lisa asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Mary replied. “I’m more worried about Azalea. Could you go check up on her?”

Lisa nodded, and hurried off without another word. Satisfied that she was alone, Mary fumbled through her contacts until she found the one she needed to call.

“Oh, hello, Mary! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you just yet. Are we still on for today?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Mary said wearily. She already felt exhausted – a portent of things to come, she assumed. “Listen, Linda? I think I’m going to have to take that rain check after all. Something’s come up.”

~~~~~~

Mindy Eckstein was, typically, a very punctual person. That she arrived at the office late was unusual. But, then, these were unusual circumstances. It felt like every single person in Esterwood was struggling to adapt to the situation, and it showed. The town was never bustling, but since yesterday it felt downright desolate. Mindy herself struggled to motivate herself to leave the Coniglio home at all.

Eventually, however, she had decided that she needed to do _something_ other than mope. And it was almost certain that there would be a lot of work to do, given the situation. She didn’t want to just dump it all on Mike.

“Oh, you decided to come in? You didn’t have to, you know.”

Mike Luo didn’t particularly look like someone who wouldn’t have minded Mindy electing to take the day off. He was _haggard_. Given his species, it was impressive that the bags under his eyes were so immediately obvious, and he was hunched over a massive pile of paperwork that Mindy honestly couldn’t fathom the origin of.

“I didn’t want to leave it all to you.”

“It’s fine!” Mike replied, in a way that made it abundantly clear that no it was not in fact fine. “You’ve got family in Locksmouth, right? Right now it’s better that you take the time to get your head in the game.”

“Mike, you look like shit. I’m not letting you sit here and deal with this on your own.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve ascended beyond stressed out into a state of manic psychosis.”

“Mike.”

“Okay, okay, fine. Stay, I can’t stop you. Give me a minute to get some coffee and then I’ll get you up to speed on how fucked we are.”

Mike pulled himself up slowly, lurching his way over to the coffee machine. He was a very _lanky_ person. His limbs all seemed slightly too long and slightly too thin to be natural. The way his tired back bent forward as he shuffled made him seem like a scarecrow that had come to life. “D’ya want a cup?”

“I’ll grab my own at some point. How bad is it?” Mindy walked over to the desk and leaned over the disorganized pile of papers, trying to work out what exactly was going on.

“At _least_ a full third of our adult population is unaccounted for. They’re all in Locksmouth. Of course they are! Everyone works in Locksmouth because the Esterwood job market is shit!”

“That’s... Going to be difficult to deal with.”

The lemur nodded a bit too enthusiastically before chugging his mug of coffee in one go and then swooping back to his desk. “After this blows over I’m gonna run a campaign encouraging folks to get jobs in Harbington. Nothing ever goes wrong in Harbington. Harbington is literally the most boring city on earth short of Esterwood.”

“And Beth is still on vacation, right?”

“In Locksmouth, yes. Because Murphy’s Law is real and it has a vendetta against me, specifically.” Mike wasn’t really alone in being overworked, of course. Things hadn’t been quite as bad as they were before, but then Llewellyn had passed a bit more than a year ago and it turned out he had been doing far more than his fair share of the workload. For as small and quiet as Esterwood was, one would think that the Arbitrators wouldn’t be as constantly overworked as it sometimes felt like they were. And, of course, no one seemed to particularly want to take Llewellyn’s place. Of course they didn’t.

“Ugh,” Mindy grunted.

“Tell me about it. I’m just sitting here waiting for the next thing to go wrong because you _know_ it’s gonna get worse.”

Mindy took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She had never, really, been that much of an Arbitrator. There hadn’t been _call_ for competent politicians in Esterwood until literally this very instant. “No. No, we need to not dwell on worst case scenarios right now. Let’s just take things as they come.” It _felt_ like the proper politician thing to say at least.

“Mm,” Mike replied quietly. “There’s this old pre-splice saying my dad used to say to me all the time. It goes somethin’ like ‘hope for the best, expect the worst.’” He slumped backwards into his chair. “We can stay optimistic all we want, but if we don’t plan for the worst case scenario then we’re gonna be fucked if it hits us. We can put on a brave face for the people, but we need to be ready for things to go south, y’know?”

“Are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to panic?”

“Maybe a little bit. It sucks, but I’ve gotta admit work hasn’t been this interesting since... Basically ever.”

Mindy sighed, but also smiled a little bit. “I suppose so. You go grab a nap or something, I can take over here.”

“No it’s fine.”

“Mike,” Mindy said firmly. “Sleep. You said it yourself, we need to be at the top of our game right now.”

“Bah, fine,” Mike said, waving dismissively as he pulled himself out of his chair. “Gimme a call if anything comes up.”

“I will. You go rest, I’ve got thi- Oh, hold on, I’m getting a call.”

Mike, for whatever reason, elected to stay for the moment. Mindy didn’t exactly begrudge him staying in his office for a few more minutes for whatever reason, assuming it wasn’t a call she’d rather take in private. Worse came to worse, _she_ could leave.

“Hello? I- Mrs. Rothschild? Why are you calling me?” Mindy stopped talking as Lisa spoke to her. Her expression dropped, and the colour drained from her face. “I... I see,” she said after a moment. “I’ll... I’ll call you back later. Sorry. Thanks.”

She turned and gave Mike a Look. He had already returned to his desk. “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” he said, looking sombre. “The next thing’s gone wrong.”

~~~~~~

Viola was very, very, _very_ tired. She didn’t feel like she had any _right_ to be, of course. Not compared to the others. No sprained ankle or broken ribs, or severe blood loss. But it had been a long day. And it was only early afternoon – there was still plenty of day to go.

So instead she ruminated. There was a lot to ruminate on, after all. Everything Delphi had told Aubrey rested heavily on her mind. It was ultimately not _that_ much information, but it was better than the nothing she’d had to go on so far. Aubrey was something called an Inkling, a creature from another world – another _reality_. That particular aspect of it mostly went over Viola’s head, really. They were aliens. That was what she understood. All that stuff about other realities could wait until they had more time to explain in detail. In addition to being aliens, the Inklings were also apparently in the middle of some sort of civil war, and Aubrey and her crew had apparently arrived on earth for reasons related to that. Anything more was frustratingly vague. Viola couldn’t really blame Delphi for that – she already knew more than Aubrey and Titania combined. Not knowing had to be just as frustrating for her.

Ursula didn’t seem to be faring particularly well, either. Understandable, Viola supposed. She’d just learned that there was an alien living inside of her for at least ten years, give or take. It was a lot to take in, and Viola had at least _known_ about Aubrey during that time. The doberman sat sullenly near the edge of the impromptu campsite they had set up, nursing her wounds.

Or at least Viola assumed she was being sullen. She hadn’t said much after Delphi had retreated inside of her, merely wordlessly setting up a vague approximation of a campsite. Erin was laid on a park bench, with a bundle of spare clothing as an impromptu pillow, while Vienna was stuck with the ground. It made sense, Viola supposed, considering Erin was in much worse shape than Vienna. Still, it didn’t really seem very fair, so she had placed her twin’s head on her thighs.

She honestly wasn’t entirely sure who was getting the better deal, of the two, really.

“You doin’ okay, babe?”

“H-huh? Oh, um. Yeah, I’m fine. Just kind of tired. What about you?”

“Not great! Turns out fighting a giant bull monster with cracked ribs isn’t the best idea in the long run. I know I’m supposed to be on watch, but I don’t think I’m gonna be up to _m_ _oving_ until I get some rest.”

“That’s fine. We should probably be safe for now. Probably.”

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t try and leave. Ha,” Ursula laughed bitterly. “The exit’s right fuckin’ there, too. I’m pretty sure that’s irony. Or at least kinda bullshit.”

“Mph.” Viola stroked her twin’s hair. Her chest rose and fell gently in time with her breathing. That was a good sign. She was just asleep, which probably meant she’d wake up sometime soon. Erin’s body, by contrast, was almost deathly still. Without close examination to confirm that her heart was beating, Viola would have assumed she was dead and not just in a healing coma. That was something added to humans by the splice – whenever someone got hurt seriously enough, their body would shut down everything but the bare minimum needed to keep them alive while it attempted to put itself back together. There was no indication how long that would take. Erin had lost a _lot_ of blood, but Viola didn’t have any idea how serious Prana Burnout was. It could take her a few hours to recover, or days, or months.

If Delphi was to be believed, there was a very good chance Erin wouldn’t be waking up at all.

“Oogh.” Thankfully, Viola found herself not getting the chance to dwell on that particular line of thought, as Vienna picked that moment to wake back up. “What’d I miss?”

“Oh thank fuckin’ god you’re awake, now I can _sleep_.” Ursula flopped backwards onto the ground, wincing slightly from the impact. “Congratulations, you get to take second watch. Viola get over here so I can use your lap as a pillow.”

“Hey, gimme a break, I _just_ woke up,” Vienna grumbled, rubbing her eyes slightly.

“Viola can catch you up on the basics I’m fuckin’ _tired_ and I’ve got broken ribs so I think I deserve a fucking nap.”

“Can I at _least_ have a snack bar or something before you make me take watch?”

“Okay, _fine_ , grab one from the backpack. But only one, we need to be careful about making sure our supplies last.”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t hafta tell me.” Vienna pulled herself up into a sitting position. “How long was I ou-ack!” Her question was interrupted by Viola tackling her from behind, knocking her over onto her front and hugging her tightly. “Oof. Good to see you, too. How’re you holding up?”

“Mph.”

“That bad, huh? It’s okay.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“C’mon, get off’a me, I’m still a little sore.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Viola pulled away awkwardly, and the twins both stood up.

“Mph, that’s better,” Vienna groaned as she stretched. “I can’t remember the last time I felt so _stiff_.”

“You _were_ lying on the ground for a few hours.”

“Yeah, that’d do it. Ech.” She turned and shuffled over to the backpack, which was acting as the centre point of the campsite. “Did Ursula fill you in on the whole giant bull situation?”

“She gave me the cliffnotes, yeah. U-um, what about-”

“Erin filled me in.”

“Um?”

“Yeah, uh, apparently we can share our dreams now? It seems to be a Kadabra thing.”

“Oh. Um. Th-they’re called Inklings. Apparently.”

“Inklings?”

Viola nodded, gesturing her head at Ursula.

“She has one too?”

“Yeah. Delphi.”

“Man they all have really weird names, don’t they.”

“Titania’s not too weird.”

“It’s a _bit_ weird. And what kinda name is Edifice?”

“Edifice?”

“Oh, um. That’s mine’s name.”

“Oh.” Viola sighed. “I guess that means Aubrey’s the only one who doesn’t remember her name?”

“Hey, don’t worry, she’ll remember eventually, right?” Vienna smiled warmly, tearing open a protein bar and taking a big bite. “Why don’t you catch me up on what happened while I was asleep and then I’ll catch _you_ up on what happened in my dream.”

“Oh, right, you talked to Erin.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So the secret’s out?”

“Little bit. Ursula already knew. Now, uh. So does Erin?”

It was Viola’s turn to smile a little. “Much more thoroughly.”

Vienna blushed _violently_. “ _Viola!_ ” she yelped.

“Why are you shouting outta nowhere?” Ursula interjected. “Were you guys doing the Thing again?”

“Oh.”

“We _might_ have been doing the Thing again.”

“Sorry, it just sort of happens sometimes.”

“Sometimes we don’t realize we’re doing it?”

Ursula groaned. “Okay, like, you’re twins, I get it, and I’m glad you’ve got a good relationship, but could you _please_ keep the weird telepathy thing for when I’m not around? I’d like to be able to participate in conversations.”

“Right,” Vienna said, out loud this time. “Sorry.”

“And don’t fuckin’ shout.”

“Sorry,” the twins replied in unison.

“And stop apologizing! Geeze.” Ursula flailed vaguely, without actually getting up. “Now hurry up and eat so I can have a god damn nap.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vienna said flippantly, quickly finishing off her protein bar. “What should I do with the trash?”

“Fuckin’ throw it on the ground, it’s not like we’re gonna get in trouble for littering.”

Vienna shrugged and did so. “Okay there I’m awake. _Now_ you can go to sleep.”

“ _Finally._ Viola, get over here, I need a pillow.”

“Use the backpack or something, Viola’s already had _my_ head on her lap for however long, she’s _gotta_ be sore.”

“Hey, you got to have a lap pillow, it’s only fair that I get a lap pillow,” she whined. “And I can’t use _your_ lap as a pillow ‘cos you’re on watch.”

“Anyway,” Vienna said, pointedly ignoring the mere implication of Ursula using her lap as a pillow. “Viola needs a nap just as much as you do.”

“But it’s not _faaaaaaaair_.”

“Oh my god just go to sleep.”

“Fine, but you’re a big stupid butthead.” Vienna rolled her eyes, and the group was silent for a moment. But only a moment – it was quickly broken by a snorting giggle from Ursula.

“What on earth are you laughing about?”

“Just thinkin’ that if we were havin’ this conversation like a week ago it’d have turned into this whole big dramatic thing.”

Vienna stopped for a moment to think. “Yeah. Yeah, it kinda would have, wouldn’t it?” She shrugged. “Don’t see the comedy though.”

“It’s like...” Ursula took a moment to collect her thoughts. “I dunno,” she eventually settled on. “Maybe it’s not funny. It’s just that, like... Kinda surreal that we’re actually getting along, you know?”

“Yeah, I can see it.”

“It’s good,” Viola interjected firmly. “I like it.”

“Yeah, we should try doin’ it more often.”

It was Vienna’s turn to laugh, snorting sharply. “Yes. Yes we should definitely try not being constantly at each other’s throats more often.”

“It’s good for our mental health!”

“I just like being able to _talk_ ,” Viola said, smiling softly and brushing an ear out of her face. “Like normal, functional adults.”

“It’s _pretty_ rad,” Ursula agreed. “Oh, hey, Viola, didja bring your cards?”

“Huh?”

“I figure that when Erin wakes up you can do some card tricks as a bonding thing. We’ve still got a few days before the deadline anyway and we could use the extra rest.”

“O-oh. Um. Yeah, I do.” Viola elected to not bring up her concerns that Erin might not, in fact, be waking up.

“You have your cards?”

“I was gonna practice some stuff in the woods. Um, b-before... _this_ all happened, you know?”

“Yeah okay, fair.” Vienna shrugged. “Actually that sounds kinda nice.”

“Alright, then it’s settled! Now get over here, I wanna hug ya.”

“ _Go to sleep_ , Ursula,” Vienna said, rolling her eyes again.

“Yes, _mom._ ” Ursula stretched, without actually standing up. “I’m getting kinda tired, anyway.”

“Weren’t you already tired?” Viola asked.

“Yeah, but like moreso.”

“Fair enough. I’m kinda tired too.”

“You both should probably grab some shuteye while you can, then,” Vienna said. “We wanna be at the top of our game when we actually hafta, like, _deal_ with all this, you know?”

“Yeah.”

Vienna pulled out her PET, and prodded at the screen. “Ami said she was okay with us _getting_ info from outside, I’m gonna see how far that stretches.”

“Cool. Try not to push things too far, tho.”

“I won’t,” Vienna replied with a slight yawn.

“Hey, don’t you go falling asleep too. We need _someone_ on watch.”

“Yeah, yeah, I just woke up, I’m tired, sue me.” Vienna frowned slightly. “Actually, I’m _really_ fuckin’ tired. You’d think I’d have gotten _more_ awake by now.”

“That’s... That’s not normal, is it?” Ursula said.

“Maybe I’m in worse shape than I thought?” Vienna muttered. She reached back and scratched the back of her neck.

And then stopped when her fingers hit something.

“What the fuck?” She closed her fingers around... _whatever_ it was. Small, a few centimetres at most, and cylindrical. It seemed to be made of metal, or something slick at the least. It was difficult for Vienna to get a grip on it, but when she did she _yanked_ it out firmly. “Ow!”

“What?”

“I dunno, there was something in the back of my neck, I pulled it out.” She held the object in front of her eyes. Clearly some sort of dart, though it was very small. It was no wonder she’d not noticed it penetrating her skin. “What the fuck is-”

Her vision blurred suddenly. “Wh-what?”

“What’s wrong?” Ursula asked, suddenly extremely concerned. Clearly, now wasn’t the time for a nap after all. She quickly attempted to pull herself together and get upright-

Only to find herself unable to move. Her limbs felt like _lead_ , and she could barely keep her eyes open. “What the fuck?”

Viola collapsed forward.

“Viola?!” Vienna stumbled towards her sister, collapsing onto her knees after the first step. Her vision blurred again, and she had to struggle to focus on anything – the bench Erin rested on, her sister, Ursula’s prone form, the backpack.

The pre-splice soldier standing at the edge of their campsite.

“Sorry about this, Boss’s orders,” Yuri said simply. “I made sure to use a small dose, just in case it does anything fucky with your weird animal person immune systems. You’ll prolly be back in action in like twenty minutes, tops.”

Makoto emerged from some cover, quickly moving over to Viola. She effortlessly picked up the prone girl, slinging her over her shoulders.

“H-hey,” Vienna managed to force out, attempting to pull herself to her feet. “Put her down.”

“Try anything and I break your legs,” Makoto snapped.

“Fuck you.”

“Fine,” the woman replied, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Try anything and I break _her_ legs.”

That was enough to give Vienna pause. She slumped back over onto the ground, giving up. “Don’t you dare hurt her.”

“We won’t, so long as you play by the rules.” Bob strode into the scene, quickly kneeling in front of Vienna.

“We haven’t broken any of your stupid rules.”

“Y’ain’t broken any of _Ami’s_ rules,” Bob corrected. “Right now, though? We’re playing a bit of a different game.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think of it as a minigame. We’re takin’ Viola here. Your job, once y’all’re up ‘n at ‘em again, is to get her _back_.”

“F-fuck you,” Vienna snapped.

“That’s the spirit. Keep that attitude up and you’ll get ‘er back in no time.” Bob smirked. “‘course, if y’all’re _smart_ , you won’t.”

That was the last thing Vienna heard before darkness flooded her vision and she returned to slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as of the writing of this note, the main story of TKM is done. there's a few more things to do before I actually *post* the ending, so in the meantime I'm gonna try and catch up over here.


	8. Act Eight - Forward Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are about as bad as they can get. Ami's threat still looms, and time is rapidly running out to stop her - and to top things off, Viola has been kidnapped. It's up to her friends to save her - the fate of the world depends on it.
> 
> But, as always, nothing is as it seems. There's more to everything than meets the eye. Viola might not be in as much danger as she appears, while her friends might be in significantly more.
> 
> Ami's game is still on, after all.

Erin had only ever been injured enough to enter a healing coma once before in her life. She’d never been the most athletic child, and had often gone out of her way to avoid situations where she might get injured. Of course, obviously she hadn’t managed to avoid Maggie, who had been enough to put _all of them_ out of commission for a full week. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience.

This time was worse. Her head _hurt_ , an almost agonizing pounding headache. Probably from the lack of hydration and also from nearly being dead. The last time she’d been in a healing coma, she’d at least been in a hospital. They’d been able to tend to her physical needs – food and water and so on – while she recovered. This time she was in a fucking hole in the ground with no hospital in sight. Or at least not a _manned_ one, she couldn’t be certain there wasn’t a hospital of some sort in the city somewhere.

“Oogh. How long was I out?” she muttered, and received no response. Slowly, agonizingly, she pulled herself upright. Her muscles, much like her head, _ached_ , her joints creaking in protest as she attempted to move them. It took her significantly more time to transfer from lying on the bench to sitting on it than it normally would have, but she managed it. Rubbing her still throbbing head, she reached down and grabbed her PET.

“Oh, good. It’s _tomorrow_ ,” she said with a frustrated groan. “I was worried it was going to be next month or something. I guess replenishing _all of my blood_ only took twenty four hours. Ugh.” Ami had only given them so much time to work with, and here she was wasting an entire day being unconscious. “I hope the others managed to make literally any progress while I was out,” she muttered, knowing full well that they didn’t. She could tell even without taking in her surroundings that they were in the fucking park still. Of _course_ they’d not made any progress considering one quarter of the team was dead weight, to say nothing of Vienna and Ursula’s own injuries.

Speaking of the others, both Vienna and Ursula were lying sprawled on the ground without even the slightest hint of makeshift bedding. Presumably they had dedicated all of the spare clothing to forming the mound that had acted as her own pillow. “Ugh, you didn’t need to give me _all_ of it, you idiots,” she muttered sullenly, grabbing the pile of clothing and marching over to the backpack. She jammed them in roughly, pulling out a protein bar. “Need food,” she grunted, taking a big bite out of it. “Ugh. That’s already better.”

Erin took in the situation, but there wasn’t really much to take in. They were _exactly_ where they had started. The exit was literally within sight for fuck’s sake, and she couldn’t _use_ it without losing an arm. _Again_. That she fucking _had_ to specify it wouldn’t be the first time was more of an indignity than she cared to accept, frankly. “Right. Titania?”

“I’m here,” her Kadabra replied from nowhere. It was unsettling, like she was speaking directly into her mind – probably because it was.

“How is the, ah, prana situation?”

“Still low, but not so low that you’re at risk of dying. It’s... actually somewhat impressive that you recovered this quickly. Usually that kind of prana burnout is... Well, not something you recover from. At all. I was expecting you to be out for at _least_ a few days.”

“Oh, lovely,” Erin muttered. “Well whatever I’m not dead. That’s the important takeaway. Let’s tend to the others, I want to get this farce over with.”

It was at that moment that Erin noticed Viola wasn’t present. She frowned slightly. It made sense, she supposed, that Viola would be awake, considering that she had remained relatively uninjured. But... That she wasn’t _present_ felt off. Surely Ursula and Vienna wouldn’t have left her on watch. _Surely_ Viola wouldn’t have left her friends asleep right by where the pre-splice soldiers were waiting for them to try anything funny.

Slowly, she found her vision drifting to the exit. “... No. No, she wouldn’t be that stupid. Outside of Aubrey suddenly remembering that her Kadabra power is being immune to bullets there is no way she would have made it out safely. And besides that she wouldn’t have left Vienna behind in a million years.” Had this happened a few days ago, Erin mused, she probably wouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss Viola potentially abandoning them, but no. It just didn’t make _sense_. Ursula, perhaps. Or if Vienna _and_ Viola were missing. But certainly not _just_ Viola.

“But then where on earth _is_ she?” Erin mused, wandering over to Vienna’s side. She grabbed the rabbit by the shoulder and shook her. Gently at first, then not so gently. “Hey, rise and shine. We’re burning daylight and I’m not waiting for you.”

“Mnf.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, _wake up!_ ” she snapped, giving Vienna a rough shove.

“Ack! What?”

“Good, you’re awake.”

“What happened?”

“I woke you up.”

“You did?” Vienna rubbed her head, pulling herself up. “Erin?”

“Yes.”

“You’re awake?”

“It appears so.”

“Good. We need to get going.”

“That would be why I woke you, yes. Grab something to eat, I’ll go wake up Ursula.”

“No time,” Vienna replied tersely, attempting to pull herself upright. Her attempt failed miserably and she flopped backwards onto her back.

“Hey, hey, take it easy,” Erin said, rushing back to Vienna’s side.

“No time to take it easy, we’ve gotta get moving. _Now_.”

“Well, yes, we’ve only got... Three and a half days left, give or take, depending on how generous Ami is about counting the first day. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the time to wake up and eat and _not_ hurt yourself.”

“They took Viola.”

The words hit Erin about as hard as she had hit the sphinx. Her heart sank – she had expected _something_ , to be sure. But to hear pretty much the worst case scenario get confirmed was... unpleasant, to say the least. “... I see.”

Vienna once again attempted to pull herself upright and once again failed. “Oogh, okay, maybe take like five minutes to wake up and _then_ we need to get going.”

“That seems like a plan, yes. Also we probably shouldn’t be leaving Ursula behind.”

“Yeah, yeah, go wake her up, I’m gonna crawl to the food.”

“Okay.” Erin rushed over to Ursula’s side, filled with a sudden sense of urgency. It probably wouldn’t do to rush, of course. But, well. It certainly wouldn’t do to dawdle either. She gave the doberman a good solid kick. “Hey, wake up.”

“Ow! What the fuck?!”

“Good, you’re awake,” she said a second time. “Get up and eat. _Apparently_ while I was unconscious Viola got kidnapped?”

“She did? Is that what they did?”

“Vienna says so.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Ursula snapped, pulling herself into a sitting position. “They came outta nowhere. Hit us with these... fuckin’ tiny-ass dart things, apparently some kinda sleepy juice.”

“And you’ve been out since?”

“What time is it?”

“Noon.”

“Okay, good,” Ursula muttered to herself, slowly standing up. “At least it’s not been too long, the trail’s prolly still fresh.”

“Noon _tomorrow._ ”

“Oh. Fuck.”

“We’ve been out a whole day?” Vienna interjected, walking over with two bars. She handed one to Ursula and ate the other herself.

“It would seem so.”

“Fuck,” Ursula said again. “Okay, uhhhhh... We need a plan.”

“That would be your job as Alpha, darling.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, gimme a minute,” Ursula grumbled, quickly downing what was probably the first meal she’d had in more than a day – a fucking protein bar. “Okay so there’s obviously a lotta places they could be hiding. First order of business is to start narrowing things down. Somehow.”

“That’s easier said than done,” Vienna responded.

“Yeah but we’ve got superpowers now, right? That’s gonna help. Let’s take stock of what we can do.”

“I can make force fields.”

“I can grow.” Erin crossed her arms, awkwardly, manoeuvring around breasts that currently weren’t actually there. “I did some experimentation in my dreams. It seems I wasn’t too far off in my estimation of my maximum size. Around twenty feet?”

“Nice,” Ursula said, earning her a pair of dirty looks. “I mean you could grow twenty feet tall and have a higher vantage point to see if you can spot anything out of the ordinary, geeze.”

“That... actually isn’t that bad of a plan. The buildings look taller than twenty feet, though, and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to maintain my maximum size. If we need to fight, I want to be able to contribute.”

“Okay, how about I use my force fields to lift you up and we scout that way?” Vienna said. “I don’t think my power is nearly as expensive as yours.”

“Okay, good. We’ve got a working plan.”

“What about Delphi? Did you ever figure out what she does?”

“She refuses to tell me,” Ursula replied with a shrug.

“Delphi?”

“Ursula’s Inkling.”

“Inkling?”

“ _Ugh_ ,” Ursula groaned, although it became clear very quickly that it wasn’t actually Ursula. Dark blue inky goo flowed from nowhere, enveloping her body in her Inkling’s form. “See this? This is why I wanted to wait until everyone was conscious before expositing. This will be the _third_ goddamn time I’ll have to explain this to you all and let me tell you, it’s a _staggering_ waste of our time.”

“It’s not a waste of time!” Titania snapped back, emerging from Erin as abruptly as Delphi had from Ursula. “Our hosts need to know these things! _I_ need to know these things!”

“Okay, but I have an idea,” Ursula interrupted – really Ursula this time. Although Delphi had the same voice, they sounded like completely different people in every other respect. “How about you _don’t_ fucking take over my body without letting me know in advance ever again?”

“It’s _my_ body too. You’re just going to have to learn how to share, host.”

“Oi! It was my body first! And I’ve got a name!”

“Yes and I don’t _care_.”

“Fuck you!”

“ _Guys_ ,” Vienna interrupted. “Not the fucking time for bickering. Come on, let’s go find a mirror or window or something so _everyone_ can be involved.”

“The host’s input is unnecessary,” Delphi responded tersely. “I can fill Titania in from here _just_ fine, thank you.”

“Hey, I’m _literally_ right here, asshole!”

“ _Guys if you don’t stop fighting I will lose my shit_.” Delphi opened her mouth to respond, but then Edifice came out and that was clearly enough for second thoughts. “Viola is missing, Aubrey is missing with her, we _do not_ have the time for petty bickering. The buildings are mirrored, it would be most efficient for us to do the necessary scouting and then for Delphi to fill us _all_ in as we head towards wherever they’re holding Viola.”

“Tch. Fine.” With that, Delphi once again retreated inside of Ursula.

“God, what a fucking _bitch_.”

“She’s not _that_ bad, once you get to know her,” Titania said. “She’s just... stressed. And probably concerned for your wellbeing.”

“Ha, yeah sure that makes sense,” Ursula replied sardonically.

“She is! She’s got a very strong moral compass and she’s always been very concerned for the wellbeing of hosts. I... I’m certain of that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ursula waved dismissively. “I’m sure she’s just abrasive or whatever. I mean look at who _I’m_ friends with.” That earned her dirty looks from both of the remaining Inklings. “I mean, like, just ‘cause someone seems like a jerk at first doesn’t mean they’ve not got their reasons or whatever.” She threw up her hands in exasperation. “Whatever! Let’s just get going!”

“Yes. We’re wasting time. Titania, retreat into Erin for now.” Titania seemed reluctant, but followed Edifice’s orders. “Now,” the inkling said. “Is anyone here afraid of heights?”

~~~~~~

Viola honestly couldn’t bring herself to feel anything about the fact that she had apparently been kidnapped. Certainly not _surprise_. If anything, it was the logical next step in how her day had been going. Though, really, by this point it had been more than a day. They were well into the _fourth_ day since the downward spiral had begun. Looking back on it now, getting assigned mandatory community service as something of a misguided attempt at a teambuilding exercise felt almost _nostalgic_. She _missed_ the profound terror at having to deal with the inevitable constant arguments between her pack. God, that was fucked up.

And now she’d been _actually literally kidnapped_ , and all she could feel was numb. She sat, hunched over with her knees pulled tightly against her chest, and glowered at her captors. There were four of them – three of which she’d already met. Yuri was in the centre of their makeshift camp, tending to what appeared to be a small campfire. Viola wasn’t really sure _why_ they’d made a campfire. They didn’t seem to be cooking anything, and it wasn’t cold or anything. Makoto was looming beside her, making it very clear that attempting to leave was ill advised. Viola had attempted to turn on the peoplefinder app almost immediately upon waking up; that had resulted in her PET getting confiscated. Bob had it currently and was idly flipping through her files. _Her_ files, dammit. That earned him an especially sharp glare.

“Bob, for fuck’s sake, stop digging through the kid’s phone, it’s fucking _weird_.”

“Excuse me for bein’ curious ‘bout the glorious future.”

“You can be curious about the future without violating her privacy jesus fucking _christ_.”

“Fine, fine. Wasn’t even’ readin’ anything.” Bob put the PET down on the ground beside him. “If the little lady behaves herself, she can _maybe_ have it back. Maybe.”

Viola let out a small harumph in response. “See? You’ve pissed her off even _more_ than she already was. Now she’s gonna be _difficult_ and it’s all your fault.”

Bob rolled his eyes, flopping over onto his back. “Whaaaaatever. Wake me up if anythin’ interesting happens.”

“Oh my god.” Makoto rolled her eyes. “Someone keep an eye on the kid, I’m gonna go kick his ass.”

“You can’t kick my ass, I’m your superior offic-ack! Stop that I’m defenceless!”

Viola elected to ignore their antics for now, turning her attention to the rest of the camp. Though, really, there wasn’t much to look at. They were outside some nondescript skyscraper on a nondescript abandoned street that looked almost identical to every other nondescript street in this godforsaken place. Viola found herself with her back to the building, slightly offset from the campfire. The fourth soldier sat across from her, on the other side of the fire from Yuri. She had adopted the same position as Viola, curled up with her arms pulled tightly around her legs, staring at the rabbit over her knees. Whenever Viola’s gaze settled on her, her eyes darted away, but it was _very_ clear that she was staring. “What are _you_ looking at?” Viola said, probably a bit meaner than was strictly necessary for just being observed. But then again, this person _was_ complicit in kidnapping her.

The fourth soldier let out a soft eep and ducked behind her legs entirely in response.

“ _Ugh_.” Viola rolled her eyes in an exaggerated enough motion that it took the rest of her head with it. “What’s her deal?”

“Oh, are you talking to us now?” Yuri responded. Viola glared and said nothing. “She doesn’t talk. Not really good with people when she’s not working.”

“Oh.” Viola suddenly found herself feeling profoundly guilty, though she wasn’t really sure why considering that, again, this person was _complicit in kidnapping her_. “She... _can’t_ talk?”

“She can, she just _doesn’t_ ,” Yuri replied with a shrug, poking the fire with a stick.

“Oh.”

“It’s not really my place to go into more detail. I’d suggest asking her yourself but, uh, that’s not gonna work for obvious reasons.” He shrugged again. “Besides, I don’t think you’ve got the cultural context to understand why she doesn’t talk anyway.”

“What’s her name?” Viola said after a moment. It felt _weird_ , talking about her like she wasn’t there. She didn’t seem to _mind_ , at least, though it was admittedly hard to tell. She’d gone back to shyly staring at Viola whenever she thought the rabbit wasn’t looking.

“Jeon Sun-Hi. Asian, so family name first and then personal name. Just call her Sunny, though. I’m _pretty_ sure she prefers Sunny. That’s what we all call her at least.”

“Okay.” Viola turned her attention back to Sunny, who intently stared at her knees and not Viola. “It’s, uh. Nice to meet you. I guess?” She gave a small wave in response, which Viola supposed counted as progress.

“And just for the record, I’m Yuri Ovcharenko. The dynamic duo over there are Tanaka Makoto – same as with Sunny, family name first and personal name second – and Robert Jefferson.”

“Stop kicking me!”

“No.”

“Are they always like that?”

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Yuri shrugged. “Enh, you get used to it after a few centuries.”

That reminded Viola of probably the biggest, most burning question she had about the whole situation. “How are you all still... alive? At all?” she asked after another moment of awkward silence.

“That’s a _very_ long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

“Fair enough. The _short_ version is that we’re cyborgs. Survived the skin plague by not having any fleshy bits left to get infected.” He held up a gloved hand and pinched his cheek.

“Oh. You, uh. Don’t really _look-_ ”

“Yeah, they made a big ol’ deal about it. Made us look cartoon character-y so we don’t look weird and inhuman. Or something like that, I don’t really understand the specifics.” Once again, Yuri shrugged. “And before you ask, I’ve got _no_ earthly idea how they managed to keep the fleshy bits we’ve got left alive for five plus centuries.”

“I’ve got a theory,” Bob interjected. At some point Makoto had decided to stop kicking at him, and had returned to looming over Viola.

“Oh, _boy_.”

“See, our brains ain’t actually kept in our bodies. We ain’t allowed to know where they actually _are_ for security reasons, but the way it works is they’re kept in big ol’ tubes and there’s a computer that interprets the signals they send out and then sends them over to our bodies. Y’follow me so far?” Viola didn’t reply, but Bob didn’t really seem to care. “Anyway, my theory for how they kept us alive this long izzat they _didn’t_. At some point our brains died, but the computers just kept sending signals to our bodies outta inertia. Basically they were interpreting our thoughts for so long that eventually they just started thinking like us on their own. Like Ghost in the Shell but real life.”

“Oh my _god_ , you’re such a fucking _nerd_.”

“Who’s the bigger nerd in this situation. The one who _made_ the reference, or the one who _got_ the reference?”

“Fuck you.”

Bob rolled his eyes, before reaching into a pouch and pulling out... _something_. A small conical packet topped with a lid of some sort – sort of like a medigel tube – which he tossed in Viola’s general direction. The rabbit briefly panicked and held her hands up to her face – the object bounced off of them and landed on the ground. “There, have some ration paste. Ain’t exactly haute cuisine, but it’s got all the nutrients you’re gonna need to keep goin’.”

“Okay.” She tentatively picked up the ration paste and turned its container over in her hands, desperately trying to figure out how to actually _eat_ it.

“You twist the top and squ- no, no, other direction. Like toothpaste.”

“Toothpaste?”

“Yeah. Do y’all not have toothpaste?”

“We have toothpaste.”

“Well then I don’t see what the problem is.”

“I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that you store food in tubes.”

“It’s compact. You can carry a month’s worth ‘a these and still have room for the rest of your gear. It’s easy to eat, too, if you don’t fuckin’ overthink it.”

“I’m not overthinking it! It’s just dumb!”

Bob laughed. “You’re right about that one. It’s a _pain_ in the ass to eat, and it doesn’t even taste good. But it’s what we’ve got so y’all’re gonna hafta deal.”

“Yippee,” Viola grumbled, opening the lid and squeezing a glob of brown goo directly into her mouth. “Ack!” She swallowed as much of it as she could manage before spitting out the rest. “Oh _god_ it tastes _awful!_ ”

“Damn straight. Soap and feet. Here,” He tossed her something else – and this time she caught it. “Wash it down with that. ‘s just water with sugar and some electrolytes in it. More chemicals, but at least they’re tasty chemicals.”

Viola gagged a bit, but managed to quickly unscrew the top of the canteen and guzzle down a good amount of what tasted like lemon soda without the carbonation. “How can you _eat_ that?”

“We don’t! Cyborgs, remember. Ain’t even got stomachs no more.” Bob grinned widely. “Best part ‘a the whole transhumanism thing is we _never_ need to fuck around with a goddamn ration ever again.”

“It’s _disgusting_.”

“Yeah, well, when your options are eatin’ stuff that tastes bad or starvin’, soap and feet starts to sound pretty fuckin’ tasty.”

“Ugh.” Viola glowered sullenly at the tube, as though that would magically make it taste better. Her mind wandered back to home. “... I miss my mom.”

“Don’t worry, kid. If all goes accordin’ to plan, you’ll be seein’ her again within a week.”

Something about that sounded _off_. “What are you talking about?”

“That’d be spoilers. Eat your paste.”

“I don’t wanna eat my paste, it’s gross.” Still, like Bob had said, starving sounded an awful lot worse than soap and feet, so she grimaced and sucked down as much as she could stomach. It tasted _beyond_ awful. She hadn’t in her entire life imagined something could taste so _bad_. Soap and feet was an understatement. It tasted bitter and acrid, like something you weren’t supposed to put in your mouth. And beyond that there was a sort of tinge of umami, like someone had taken an overcooked steak, put it in a blender, and then soaked it in lye. It _lingered_ on the palate, too. The flavoured water didn’t help in the slightest, and if anything almost made it _worse_ , spreading the chemical taste around her mouth even further.

Eventually Viola elected that she’d eaten enough of the paste and just plain couldn’t stomach any more. She was mildly impressed that she’d stomached a full third of the tube, but also a bit worried that she’d _only_ managed a third of the tube given that she didn’t actually know how much a serving was. “Do I have to eat all of it?”

“Yeah, but not all at once. It’s meant to be a full day’s worth of nutrition and calories.”

Viola tuned out the instant Yuri clarified that she didn’t need to eat the whole thing, quickly putting the cap back on and then just sort of dropping the tube to the ground where it could fucking stay until she absolutely _had_ to eat some more as far as she was concerned. She followed it up by downing a little bit more of the water – she elected not to drink _all_ of it, as she didn’t know if they had any more available – and then also put the lid on _it_ and placed it on the ground a bit more gently.

With that done, Viola suddenly found herself at a loss for what to do next. She wasn’t particularly tired, which made sense given she’d spent the better part of twenty four hours unconscious. Normally, in this situation, she would turn on some music and zone out for a few hours. But Bob still had her PET, and anyway she found herself profoundly not in the mood for music. Or much of anything, really, not that she had any other options for ways to pass the time that weren’t also on her PET. She could, she supposed, come up with some kind of escape plan. But that would be fucking stupid and almost certain to get her actually killed. Maybe, if Aubrey spontaneously remembered her superpower, that would be one thing. But as it was, Viola was only human. She didn’t stand a chance against the soldiers no matter what she did.

That left exactly one thing she could do aside from mope and eat. There was a heavy lump in her hoodie’s pocket, and she reached in and pulled out a clear plastic box that contained her cards.

There wasn’t really much of a market for cards among normal people. The designs had a certain appeal, but for the most part the only people who owned decks were... well, people like Lars or people who _were_ at some point like Lars. The occult associations were just too strong, even if they were bullshit. Which was why the designs on the cards were so mystical and weird. Stars and wands and occult symbolism. Insects and machines and wizards and demons. Viola would have preferred the more simple, standard pre-splice designs. But she took what she could get. Careful not to drop any on the ground, she took the cards out and began to shuffle.

“Oh, hey, izzat a deck of cards?”

“O-oh, um... Yes?”

“Huh, woulda thought you wouldn’t still have those.” Bob smiled wistfully. “Hey, wouldja mind dealin’ us in? We used to play poker in the downtime between missions, but a deck ‘a cards ain’t exactly built to last for five hundred years ‘a fairly regular use.”

“Um.” Viola felt suddenly flustered. She’d not expected her cards to draw any attention. “I don’t know what that is.”

“What, poker? ‘s a game you play with cards.”

“You can play games with them?”

“Yep.”

“What did you _think_ they were for?” Makoto interjected, a bit condescendingly.

“Um,” Viola muttered shyly, suddenly acutely aware that she was the centre of attention. “W-well, um... here, let me show you.”

Viola wasn’t really sure what she was thinking, but she’d already started. She did a few flourishes, getting the cards decently shuffled, before fanning the deck and holding it up. “Um. P-pick a card?”

“Ah, shit, magic! I loved that shit as a kid, tried to get into it but I was never any good.” Bob quickly darted over to where Viola was sitting, startling the smaller bun. He sat across from her with a big grin on his face. “Here, lemme, Makoto’s kind of a killjoy about this kinda thing.”

“I am _not_ a killjoy,” Makoto retorted.

“Right, you just hate fun.”

“I’d rather play poker than fuck around with sleight of hand bullshit,” she responded with a shrug.

“Well, after this, we can teach the kid how to play five-card draw or somethin’. But right now I wanna see a god damn magic trick that shit’s the _coolest_.”

“It- it is?”

“Hell yeah it is.”

“It’s definitely more interesting than poking at a campfire we don’t even need,” Yuri interjected, walking over to join the small circle around Viola, standing to Bob’s right. Sunny scooted over to their commanding officer’s left, nodding vigorously.

“O-oh,” Viola mumbled again. “Well, um. Okay. Pick a card?”

Bob nodded, reaching over and taking a card. He still had a big childish grin on his face, like he was having the time of his life.

Maybe, Viola thought, this wouldn’t be so bad after all. She immediately dismissed that thought, of course. She’d been kidnapped and the world was going to end in four days, after all.

But at least now she had something to do.

~~~~~~

“So what exactly do you even _do?_ ”

“Hm?”

“Well, it’s like...” Ursula gestured vaguely as she walked. “Titania can make Erin bigger, Edifice does the sphere thing. What do _you_ do?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“I think it’s at least a little bit my business if you’re gonna be living in my brain.” After Delphi had finished getting Erin up to speed, Ursula had elected to fall behind the others slightly, so she could have a marginally more private conversation with her Inkling. “Like, if you don’t have a superpower, then you’re kinda just a big ol’ load. Eating my soul or life force or whatever and not giving anything back.”

“I _promise_ you that my power would be entirely useless in this situation,” Delphi responded sardonically – as if everything she said wasn’t already tinged with that arrogant irony.

“Well, then what’s stopping me from kicking you out?”

“Even if that _were_ possible, which it _isn’t_ , I would die.”

“Ugh, fuck. Fine. But y’all need to start pulling your weight because right now you’re kind of useless to me.”

That seemed to hit a nerve. “I am _not_ useless.”

“You sure _seem_ useless. No superpowers, you’re living off my soul or something-”

“Prana is _not_ your soul!”

“ _Or something_. And I’m like ninety percent sure you’ve been giving me nightmares for like a decade.”

“You could see that?”

“Yeah. Anyway the point is. What do _I_ get outta this arrangement? ‘cause right now it kinda comes across as a straight negative for me.”

“Hmph. For starters, I _do_ have a power. Every elite does. _You_ just don’t get to use it.”

“Fine, fine, but you could at _least_ tell me what it _is_.”

“No.”

“ _Ughhhhhh_.”

“And that aside, I can assure you that you can get _plenty_ of benefit out of my presence without using my power.”

“Okay! Now we’re gettin’ somewhere. Gimme the deets.”

“Please use real words.”

“No. Lay it on me.”

“ _Ugh._ ” Delphi rolled her eyes, or at least made the motion. She didn’t really _have_ eyes to roll, so much as cartoony lines approximating eyes. The same applied to Titania and to Aubrey, really – Edifice outright didn’t have a face, which was weird and kind of creepy. But honestly at this point Ursula didn’t really care anymore. She was kind of tired of mentally pointing out that Inklings didn’t have facial features so much as they had approximations. “The big benefit would be Inking.”

“Like that thing where you bodyjack me? That doesn’t seem very beneficial to me.”

“I don’t _have_ to be in control. It’s just more convenient.”

“You’re _really_ not selling me on this.”

“You’ll like it, trust me.” Ursula rolled her eyes, but elected not to interject again. “For starters, Inklings are very durable. Very hard to injure. When I’m out, you won’t be _immune_ to damage, but you _will_ be very hard to hurt unless your opponent can force me off of you.”

“And how would they do that?”

“Physical trauma. Like... Punching you really hard over and over again in the same spot. Something like that.”

“Okay.”

“Hey, should you be telling them our big weakness just like that?” Edifice interjected.

“I don’t see how it could be detrimental.” Delphi shrugged. It was kind of unsettling, watching her reflection do things that she wasn’t doing – although somehow the fact that it wasn’t _her_ in the reflection made it slightly better. “It’s not like we’re not on the same side. Besides, in case you’ve forgotten there’s apparently a civil war going on. I don’t remember any of the details, but there is a very good chance we might encounter Inklings who don’t share the same allegiance as us. Whatever that might be.”

“Right, I suppose that’s a good point. It would be best for them to know how to beat Inklings, in case we ever have to _fight_ an Inkling.”

“Which reminds me, once we get back to the surface it would be wise to keep us a secret. Do not use our powers in public, and _never_ ink where someone can see you if at all. There’s no telling who else might have an Inkling who wants to hurt us and will hurt _you_ to get at us.”

“Okay, okay, this is all important information, but we’re getting off topic. What cool things can I do with you living in me?”

“This is the one you’ll like. Being inked generally increases your physical capabilities.”

“Huh?”

“Suppose you got into a fight with Viola through some arbitrary contrivance. Without being inked, she would obviously not stand a chance in any kind of physical confrontation. But if _she_ were inked and you _weren’t_ , she would be able to hold her own.”

“Bullshit.”

“I am one hundred percent serious. Being inked provides significant boosts to endurance and physical strength. You move faster and hit harder.”

“Okay. I’m _slightly_ more sold on this whole Inkling thing now. Slightly.”

“Well, you’re already quite strong. I imagine being inked would probably be enough for you to punch holes in solid concrete. We could try it out now, if you’d like, there’s quite a lot of stuff to break with your newfound super strength.”

“Uh... No, that’s fine,” Ursula said, reluctantly. She _did_ really want to try punching holes in concrete or ripping out street signs or bending streetlights. “I should probably save my prana or whatever for when I need it. We don’t know when Ami’s gonna throw another giant bull monster-”

“Minotaur,” Erin interjected.

“ _Giant bull monster_ at us.”

“Smart girl.”

“Anyway, what else can you do?”

“That’s pretty much it for powers you’re going to get to use,” Delphi responded tersely.

“Just ‘cos I’m not gonna _use_ your powers doesn’t mean I don’t wanna know what they do.”

“If you’re not going to be using them then you don’t need to know what they are.”

“I’m not going to stop asking you until you tell me.”

“Then we’re going to be here a while.”

“ _Ughhhhhh_.”

“Hey, speaking of giant monsters,” Vienna interrupted. “It’s been kinda quiet.”

“That’s a good point.” Erin frowned slightly. She had returned to her usual height and proportions – Delphi had been against it, but both Erin and Titania had insisted that the mouse was more than capable of maintaining that growth with minimal prana use. “I would have expected her to throw _something_ at us by now?”

“I figured that getting Viola back _is_ the thing she’s throwing at us?” Ursula said with a shrug. “I’m not gonna question not having to fight another giant bull monster.”

“We should still be wary,” Edifice said. “We need to conserve our energy as much as possible for the coming confrontation.”

“Yeah, those soldiers were tough,” Vienna said. “Even without them getting the drop on us, I’d rather save the superpower mojo for when we fight _them_.”

“Please just say prana, it’s not that hard, it’s _less_ syllables than what you said instead and-”

“Shhhh,” Ursula interjected.

“Don’t you shush me!”

“Shut up, I think I heard something.” The doberman came to a halt, ears perking up slightly as she listened for... whatever it was she’d heard.

“We can’t afford to stop because you heard something. Unless you _want_ your friend to remain kidnapped?”

“Shut _up_ Delphi, I’m- Shit! Get down!”

Ursula lurched forward, catching Erin and Vienna with her arms and pulling them to the ground just in time to avoid _something_ very large and black swooping directly into where they had just been standing. There was a loud _crash_ as whatever it was broke through the building, leaving a big hole in the windows and the Inklings nowhere to be seen.

“What the _fuck_ was that?!”

“I think Ami might have heard us complaining that she’d not made us fight any monsters,” Erin said wearily. “Maybe a harpy, or one of the Stymphalian birds, or possibly some sort of small dragon?”

“I _really_ hope it’s not a dragon.”

“Guys now’s probably a bad time to be having this conversation, that thing could get back up and try and kill us at any second.” Vienna’s point was emphasized by a loud, piercing shriek from inside the building.

“Duly noted. Let’s get out of here before-”

Whatever Erin had to say was cut off by maniacal laughter echoing throughout the street. “Ha ha! So, you have managed to avoid the opening volley! A fluke, of course. Blind luck! The next assault will be more than enough to do you pernicious pests in!”

“The _fuck_ did y’all just call us!?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think the word pernicious means what he seems to think it means.”

“ _Guys we should run._ ”

None of them needed to be told twice. Ursula pulled herself mostly upright, scrambling away from the building the monster was in before she’d fully stood up. The other two followed shortly behind, pulling themselves together even as they ran out into the street. And not a moment too soon – the windows burst open and _whatever it was_ burst out.

“What the _fuck_ is that thing?” Ursula asked, not really expecting a satisfactory answer. She certainly couldn’t tell just by _looking_ at it. Maybe Erin was more familiar with whatever mythological monster it was? All Ursula could see was some sort of giant bat. But also a human at the same time? Like a pre-splice human but with fur and a bat’s head and wings instead of arms. And a weird sort of costume, though one that didn’t seem to fit particularly well.

_Whatever_ it was, it opened its mouth and let out a piercing _shriek_. Ursula’s hands reflexively went to cover her ears – it _hurt_. She couldn’t imagine how Vienna and Erin felt, considering their ears were bigger than hers. The glass on the building _cracked_ , and it lunged forward at Ursula while her hands were busy covering her ears. “Ack!”

She caught it just in time to prevent it from completely bowling her over, grabbing it by the shoulders and holding it at arm’s length. It flailed wildly in a futile attempt to break free, struggling to get out of Ursula’s grip and bite her face off. It growled, snapping its jaws, sending spittle flying everywhere – mostly in Ursula’s face. “Ew,” she said as she did her best to hold the thing back. “Get- get offa me!” She punctuated her demand with a knee to the bat thing’s stomach, and then another and another. It winced more heavily with each blow, its grip weakening slightly, and Ursula took that opportunity to spin around and throw it into the street. “Fuck off!” she shouted, giving it a solid kick to the face before it could get up.

That turned out to be a bad idea. It quickly latched onto her foot with its teeth – thankfully her boots were tough enough that its razor sharp fangs couldn’t pierce them, but it still had a distressingly strong grip. “Gah! Gerrof!” Ursula kicked and flailed, but the beast stayed latched on firmly. This tactic wasn’t working, clearly – so she tried a new one. She planted her foot firmly on the ground, raised the foot he _didn’t_ have a death grip on, and brought it down on his head as hard as she could. That was enough to get the thing to let out a scream of pain, and in the process to get Ursula free from its jaws. She darted backwards, out of its reach. The second she was out of range, Vienna grabbed the thing in a force field.

“What the _fuck_ is that?!”

“I, um, I don’t know,” Erin said uncertainly. “Some sort of vampire, maybe?”

“What about that dude who was ranting earlier?”

“Guys,” Vienna said, her voice strained. “I don’t mean to interrupt but our friend here’s kind of a handful.” Red ink flowed out from nowhere, quickly replacing the rabbit with her Inkling. “Okay. That’s better. He’s lively, though. We should take him out quickly.”

“You’re in the best position to do that,” Ursula said. “I don’t wanna get close to it again, and- Shit!” The doberman moved quickly, leaping in between Vienna and the massive, muscular boar man who was charging at her. She caught it by the tusks, sliding backward slightly from the inertia. “God dammit, _another_ one?!” The new arrival squealed angrily, wildly thrashing its head back and forth in an attempt to break free from Ursula’s grip.

“I don’t think these are anything from mythology,” Erin said, backing away from the other two and their fights. “At least not anything I’m familiar wi-ack!” Erin found herself falling backwards as the ground shook, and then again. “What on earth?”

As if in answer to her question, a shrill trumpeting _noise_. She quickly pulled herself upright and turned around, getting confirmation of what she already knew. “Oh. Good. An elephant man. I was just thinking that we could use one of those.”

The third animal person was _enormous_. The other two were large, but the elephant man had to be ten feet tall. It was very wide, too, and muscular – built like a power lifter. It loomed menacingly, taking a single heavy step towards the smaller mouse. Its footsteps left fucking _cracks_ in the pavement beneath it from their sheer power.

“This... isn’t good, is it? We seem to be a bit surrounded.”

“We’ve got superpowers, we can take ‘em.”

“I wish I could share your enthusiasm, darling.”

“Your murine friend is correct!” interjected the bombastic voice from earlier. “You thought you could thwart my evil schemes, but you stand no chance against my mighty Beastmen, superpowers or no!”

“Where _is_ that even coming from?” Ursula grunted, barely capable of saying anything while struggling to keep control of the boar man.

“I am above you woeful whelps! But I suppose it would only be fair to allow you to see the face of your doom!” Whoever it was jumped down from seemingly nowhere, landing gracefully in between Vienna and the bat man. He was yet another pre-splice human, though they could only tell by looking at his face – everything else was covered. Black rubber gloves covered his hands, with similar rubber boots on his feet. He wore a tattered lab coat that flowed in nonexistent wind, and which had some unsettlingly red stains. The mad scientist aesthetic was crowned off by big, thick goggles that obscured his eyes. “Behold, the instrument of your demise! You will _rue_ the day you interfered with the brilliant plans of the invincible Beastmaker!”

Vienna stared blankly. It was all she _could_ do, really, even if she _didn’t_ completely lack a proper face due to the presence of Edifice. Erin was more interested in the still slowly approaching elephant man, while Ursula was focused on the boar, but Vienna couldn’t _help_ but look at the apparent supervillain, because he was practically in her fucking face.

After a moment to process this development, she finally spoke up. “You’ve _gotta_ be fucking kidding me.”


	9. Act Nine - He Who Makes A Beast Of Himself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no.

The world seemed to grind to an abrupt halt around Vienna. To her left, a ten foot tall elephant man towered over Erin. To her right, Ursula was wrestling with a slightly more reasonably sized boar man, just barely keeping a hold of his vicious tusks. In front of her, there was an actual fucking supervillain lifted directly from a Captain Comet storyline, and behind him was a bat creature that Edifice had trapped in a force field. He struggled, violently, but apparently being inked made her force fields much easier to maintain – she wasn’t _too_ worried about him breaking out any time soon.

“I’m sorry, fucking _what?_ ” Ursula snapped incredulously. It seemed to be all she could manage – all of her attention was on not getting her guts spilled by the boar man creature thing.

“Yes, um, could you... Run that by us again?”

“Beastmaker!” Ami replied, breaking character for a moment. Just like that, the bat and boar alike stopped their struggles. Tentatively, Ursula let go of the tusks and Vienna dropped her shield. Neither creature moved – like they were statues. “Come on, you’ve _gotta_ have heard of Beastmaker, right? He was a pretty big deal, back in the day.”

“I’m... afraid I haven’t, sorry,” Erin replied.

“I have,” Ursula said. “He’s... A comic book character?”

“No he’s not!”

“From Captain Comet, right?”

“I think so? I got super hardcore convinced Captain Comet comics were for babies when I was like twelve and I didn’t get over myself until a year back, so I missed a bunch and I’m a bit rusty on the lore.”

“What on _earth_ are you talking about?” Ami replied, somewhere between a young child indignant that an older kid had just said her favourite superhero wasn’t cool and a historian gently baffled that someone just told her that pre-splice humans didn’t ever actually exist. “Why are you rambling about comics of all things? Captain Comet was a real person.”

“What.”

Beastmaker abruptly vanished, replaced by Captain Comet. Like he’d stepped out of the pages of a comic book and into real life. Tall, well muscled, with long red hair and bright green eyes. He even had the costume. “Jacent Danger, also known as Cap’n Comet. I could give you his date of birth, his date of death, his blood type, literally anything you could ask for. Real historical figure. How do you all not know this? What are they _teaching_ you kids?”

“Not that comic book characters apparently actually existed, that’s for sure.” Vienna _stared_ , even moreso than she had stared at Beastmaker. When she had made the mental comparison to a Captain Comet villain, she hadn’t really considered he might _actually be a Captain Comet villain_. Of course she hadn’t. Captain Comet didn’t exist. He was a fictional character that someone had made up. Right?

But, well, here he was. In the flesh, sort of. She wasn’t entirely sure how Ami managed all of this, but he sure fucking _looked_ like a real person and not a cartoon character. _Beastmaker_ had looked like a cartoon character, though Vienna hadn’t really been able to tell at first – she didn’t exactly have the most experience with what pre-splice humans were _supposed_ to look like, aside from the soldiers. And, now that she thought of it, the soldiers also had that sort of smooth, cartoony look to them.

“Okay, yes, I took a few liberties with Beastmaker’s appearance, I’ll admit. But, like, the real guy didn’t exactly make for the best boss fight, okay?” Once again, Ami abruptly changed shape. Beastmaker, again, but with that same _realism_ that Captain Comet had. And without the goggles and the bloodstains. Short, kind of overweight, and very unassuming. Being pre-splice aside, he looked almost _violently_ normal, like everyone’s family doctor. “Like, I’ll admit the mythology angle had a mixed reception and was _probably_ a bit much for your first time. This is a learning experience for all of us! But a chubby Chinese guy who gaslights people into thinking they’re furries is overcompensating in the other direction.”

“I... Um.” Vienna struggled to come up with any kind of response. Judging by the deafening silence from her companions, she wasn’t the only one who couldn’t quite process what was going on. There were an _awful_ lot of questions being raised, and Vienna struggled to pick just one.

“Like, don’t get me wrong, the historical Leonard Chu was obviously a real, legitimate threat. Just... not a very interesting fight, divorced of the real world context.”

Vienna frowned. Suddenly one very specific question managed to fight its way to the forefront of her mind. “Wait, hold on. Leonard Chu? The guy behind the splice?”

“The very same! Don’t ask me how he managed that one, records from around that time are understandably very spotty.”

“That...” Vienna stared. Some more. It wasn’t really her fault that she kept getting caught off guard. Her mind struggled to reconcile the three disparate pictures of Leonard Chu; the man who saved humanity, the comic book supervillain, and the historical person who was apparently _both_ and neither at the same time.

“Okay, hold on,” Ursula interrupted. “This is all very interesting, but we’ve got other priorities.”

“Hm. You know what, you’ve got a point,” Ami replied.

“Right! So, you need to let us g-”

“We’ve _totally_ killed the momentum of the boss fight! There was all that buildup to a cool fight and now we’re just _talking_ , and that’s _boring!_ ” Ami changed, one final time, returning to the original Beastmaker form. “Enough expository banter!” He shouted, the computer once again slipping back into character. “You fools have _dared_ interfere with my plans, and for that transgression you must die!”

“that’s not what I- ack!” Ursula found herself interrupted by the boar man resuming his charge. The elephant man took a thunderous step towards Erin.

And, in front of Vienna, Beastmaker took a deft leap to the side, allowing the bat man to fly directly into Edifice’s abdomen.

~~~~~~

“Go fish.”

“Bob for fuck’s sake you’re confusing the kid. Please take this a little seriously.”

“That’s just what someone who has the old maid would say!”

Viola had, mostly, gotten the hang of five card draw very quickly. It wasn’t exactly a complicated game. A lot of it boiled down to getting lucky with your starting hand. If you had something to work with, it was easy to recognize what didn’t fit and get rid of it. What made the game interesting was the psychological aspect. Trying to predict how good (or bad) the other players’ hands were, and making it unclear how good (or bad) your own hand was. As much as getting a good hand relied on luck, getting a _bad_ hand didn’t necessarily mean you lost if you were good enough.

She was, she realized, having fun. In spite of herself. She felt almost... relaxed. Which was weird because she’d been fucking kidnapped – again, she couldn’t fucking stress that enough.

“Anyway, full house.”

“Mother _fucker!_ ” Makoto threw her cards down in disgust. Yuri had already folded early on, and Sunny let out a disappointed sigh as she placed her cards down – two pair. “I wouldn’t mind your bullshit so much if you didn’t keep _winning_.”

“Well, maybe you should just get good.”

“I am good! You’re just an asshole!”

“Um,” Viola interrupted, laying out her cards. An ace, a four, a three, a nine, and a jack, all spades. “This is good, right?”

“Ah, a flush. Yeah, that’s good. Doesn’t beat a full house, though.”

“Oh...”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Bob said with a friendly grin, gently tousling Viola’s hair. “You picked up the game quickly. Pretty soon you’ll be wiping the floor with all of us.”

“Oh god, please don’t even imply that.” Makoto slumped forward. “It’s bad enough I keep losing to a clown, losing to a _kid_ who had literally never heard of poker until an hour ago would be the _ultimate_ indignity.”

“You’re just jealous she’s better’n you.”

“Do you know how much I played back in the day? It was literally a part of my job!”

“It was?”

“Hm?” Makoto turned her head slightly at Viola’s interjection. “Oh. Yeah. It’s kind of a long story,” she said, waving her left hand dismissively. It was the first time Viola really had a _chance_ to get a good look at it, which is why it was only now that she noticed Makoto’s pinkie finger was missing.

“What happened to your hand?”

“That’s _also_ a long story.”

“We’ve got time,” Bob countered. “We can’t play poker forever.”

“Ugh. Fine. Whatever.” Makoto sighed. “I used to be a yak. Quit, had to do yubitsume.”

“A yak?” Makoto’s answer just served to confuse Viola more. “I thought you were pre-splice?”

“No, no, not... not that kind of yak. Like... Yakuza. Japanese mafia.”

“Oh,” Viola said, and then after a moment continued. “I don’t know what either of those are.”

“Oh _boy_.”

“Like a big ol’ group ‘a bad guys.”

“It’s more complicated than that. But yes, basically.”

“Oh.”

“It’s... Ugh, how do I explain this to you. Do you even have a concept of crime? I know you don’t have guns for some inane reason.”

“I know what crime is!” Viola snapped. “A-and the Disarming wasn’t inane!”

“Pft, yeah. Sure kid. Disbanding the military is historically such an _effective_ idea. Let me guess, y’all’ve got a ‘Self Defence Force’ set up or something?”

“No!”

“Oh, you managed to actually go through with it? That’s almost impressive.” Viola sputtered indignantly, struggling to find any kind of response and failing miserably.

“Listen,” Bob interjected. “It’s cute that y’all think that you can just ban armies and everything’ll turn out fine in the long haul. But the thing about bannin’ guns is that the people who’re gonna misuse ‘em are the people who ain’t gonna follow that rule in the first place.”

“B-but there _aren’t_ any guns anymore!”

“Don’t matter. All it’s gonna take is for one dome to realize that if they have weapons but no one else does, then they’ve pretty much won the war before it’s even started.”

“But...” Viola trailed off as she tried to articulate her response. “But why would anyone even _do_ that? Things are good as they are.”

“But things could be _better_. Simple as that.” Bob reached down and gathered up the cards. “People’re people. That ain’t ever gonna change, no matter how y’all pretty it up. Might take ten years or a hundred or a thousand, but _eventually_ someone’s gonna decide they want more, an’ see how easy it’d be to _get_ more. And when they do, everything’s gonna go to shit.”

“But that doesn’t make sense.”

“People don’t make sense, kid,” Bob responded bluntly, handing the deck to Viola. “Y’all ever heard of the prisoner’s dilemma?”

“No.”

“It’s an ol’ thought experiment. You’ve got two folks, let’s call ‘em Dave and Joe, who broke the law somehow, let’s say... Hell, let’s say they’re yakuza, ‘s relevant.”

“You still haven’t explained what that is.”

“The _point_ is that they got caught by the cops and now they’re bein’ questioned. They’ve got no means of communicatin’ with each other, or with anyone else ‘cept the people interrogatin’ ‘em. The cops offer ‘em a deal. See, they got a lotta evidence on ‘em, but only for a smaller crime, not the big one – let’s say they robbed a bank. But if one of ‘em rats on the other, then that’d be enough. So the deal is that if they cooperate with the cops, they’ll get a smaller sentence.”

“Okay... I think I get it?”

“There’s three ways it can go. First, Dave and Joe both decide to keep their lips sealed an’ they go to prison for one year on the lesser charge. Second, Dave and Joe both decide to narc on the other and they both serve two years in prison.”

“Okay so then why would they ever not choose to stay silent?”

“Because ‘a the third way it can go. Dave stays silent, but _Joe_ decides to spill the beans, so Dave gets put away for ten years but Joe goes free. So if you chose to stay silent, the best case is you go to prison for a year and the worst case is you go to prison for a decade. But if you talk, the worst case is you go to prison for two years and the best case is you go free.”

“But... why would anyone betray their friends like that?”

“Who said they’re friends? They just work together.”

“But-”

“Don’t get me wrong, kid. I agree with you. In a perfect world, both prisoners would stay silent and take the year of jail time on the chin. But this ain’t a perfect world.”

“So... that’s it, then? They just always betray each other?”

“Nope.”

“But you just said-”

“I just said people’re people, kid. If everyone behaved perfectly rationally, they’d always choose to talk.” Bob pulled himself upright and went over to join Yuri in tending to the dying embers of the fire. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that people are _never_ perfectly rational.”

“This is stupid,” Makoto interjected.

“Hey, fuck you, this is important philosophical talk.”

“Yeah but what does it have to do with explaining the concept of organized crime to the kid? Does she even know what prison _is?_ ”

“Sort of? I learned about how it was handled pre-splice in history class two years ago, but we don’t really handle it that way anymore.”

“Okay, fair enough. But they didn’t teach you about the mafia?”

“Not really. I’ve never heard the word before. You... said it was organized crime, though? So it was a bunch of people working together to break the law?”

“Like I said, it’s more complicated than that. It was more like... Like, when the way you make a living is illegal according to the people in charge, they’re gonna look for any opportunity to get rid of you. So we generally avoided actually breaking the law unless absolutely necessary, especially not in any _big_ , obvious ways. And we got in the people’s good graces. Helped protect their businesses from the competition. Did a lotta disaster relief work.”

“Oh. That... doesn’t sound too bad?”

“Yeah, no. It was. When I said we protected folks from the competition? We did it by beating them so bad they were barely alive. Didn’t kill ‘em, though, unless we _had_ to. Murder is a good way to get the cops mad at you.” Makoto sighed despondently. “There were a lotta gang wars. Lotta unsavoury shit. I mostly ignored it ‘cause I was good at the unsavoury shit. Was about the _only_ thing I was really good at. The only place I felt like I belonged. Until...” She sighed, holding up her hand. “Well, until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Let’s just leave it at that. That’s why I’m missing a finger. So I don’t ever forget that I’m not a good person.”

Viola couldn’t think of anything to say, so she didn’t say anything.

“Ugh. That’s enough downer talk,” Makoto said, pulling herself upright. “That was all centuries ago. No point dwelling on it now.”

“Y’gotta learn to find the _joy_ in things. Otherwise you just go crazy. An’ that ain’t good for anyone.”

“... Right.” Viola wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or not that the conversation dried up there. On the one hand, she didn’t particularly like the return to that initial unpleasant silence. But on the other, she found herself relieved that the particular subject of conversation had passed. She wasn’t entirely sure what had happened, but she... got the impression she hadn’t been on the winning end of the debate.

Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Viola found herself _very much_ wanting to go home. And more than that – to go back to how things _were_. Before the soldiers. Before Ami. Before whatever apparent alien invasion had occurred in Locksmouth. The constant, agonizing tension wasn’t exactly pleasant, to be sure. But at least it had been almost over – once High School was over, they would all be free to go their separate ways.

And, as much as she hated her friends constantly being at each others’ throats, it was at least better than _this_.

~~~~~~

Ursula made an attempt to overpower the boar man. Wrench him hard to the left, flipping him over onto his belly and throwing him to the ground. That was the plan, at least, and then she could have followed up by giving him a good solid stomp like she had to the bat. The problem was that she didn’t have the physical strength to manage that first move. Every attempt to rotate him was met with an equal but opposite force, keeping them at a stalemate. Ursula couldn’t keep this up forever – she just plain didn’t have the stamina. Which was unfortunate, because as far as she could figure the boar man _could_ keep this up forever. He wasn’t _real_. Some sort of hologram, or a robot, or fuck at this point if you told her Ami could just do literal magic she’d not be able to rule it out one hundred percent. He had the edge on her.

But Ursula _did_ have an idea for how to even the odds in that regard.

“Hey, Delphi, remember how you were talking about trying out your super strength? I think now would be a _great_ time for that.”

“Agreed.” Ursula wasn’t a fan of the way Delphi spoke using her mouth. It felt _weird_. Like... well, like there was someone else living in her body and occasionally using it against her will. It was an unpleasant situation. Like she was crazy. Which was probably how Viola felt all the time, now that she thought about it. She found herself with a newfound sense of empathy for what her packmate had to go through every day for a large chunk of her life. She didn’t like it. At all.

Dark blue ink flowed out from nowhere, enveloping her. Almost black, but not quite, dotted with stars and galaxies and constellations, and outlined in a purpley red. “Okay, buddy, eat this!” she shouted, jerking _hard_ to the left and throwing the boar man to the ground. It was almost _scary_ how effortless it was. Like he wasn’t there at all. Clearly Delphi hadn’t been exaggerating the strength boost – if anything, it felt like she’d almost understated it. She lifted her leg high up and then slammed her heel down as hard as it would go. Unfortunately, in the time it had taken her to set up the blow, the boar man had rolled out of the way. Her foot crashed into the ground, sending sparks flying. Not exactly the result she’d been expecting.

“Hey! Careful, you’ll break my projectors!” This time, even though Ami was breaking character, the fight didn’t stop. The boar man pulled himself back to his feet and charged at Ursula. “Do you have any idea how hard those are to fix? It’s not like anyone manufactures the parts anymore or anything. I’ve gotta do it all myself and it takes _forever_.”

“Sorry!” Ursula shouted, deftly dodging the boar’s mad charge and quickly repositioning herself to counter the next one. “I didn’t mean to- wait why the fuck am I apologizing to you you’re trying to kill me.”

“Don’t even think about breaking them on purpose!” Ami snapped, charging forward again. “That’s cheating!”

Ursula _had_ been considering it – breaking whatever mechanism let Ami do these things would be an easy way to win the fight. But, well, she didn’t want to risk the penalties for cheating. Instead, she grabbed the boar’s tusks once again, this time using the momentum of his charge to pull him forward and throw him back onto the ground. “I don’t need to cheat to beat you!” This time she didn’t hesitate to throw a heavy punch at his face. Her fist collided with his snout, caving it in by a good few inches. He squealed in agony, but considering he was some sort of hologram Ursula didn’t feel any sympathy for him – instead, she threw another punch, and then another, until he stopped moving. “There! How d’ya like that, asshole!”

She slowly pulled herself upright. That had taken slightly more out of her than she’d expected – the adrenaline high was fading, and she could _feel_ the exertion taking its toll. It had taken significantly more effort to beat the boar man than her typical boxing match. Probably because her typical opponent wasn’t actively trying to kill her. The fact that she wasn’t using an inertial dampener also probably contributed in _some_ way, though she honestly wasn’t sure whether it’d have made her more or less tired. It wasn’t like she’d really taken any _hits_ from the boar man. His attacks had been _very_ clearly telegraphed, and her reaction time had been good enough to catch him before he became a _real_ threat, so it had ultimately been just a matter of overpowering him.

Ursula’s train of thought was abruptly derailed when an alligator man lunged at her from behind. She turned around _just_ in time to catch his jaws, holding them open _inches_ from clamping shut around her head like a vice. “Oh for fuck’s sake how many of you _are_ there?! Little help here, guys?”

“I’m preoccupied, darling,” Erin replied, taking a shaky step backwards in time with the elephant man taking one towards her. His feet collided with the ground with rhythmic, heavy _thuds_. “Actually I was kind of hoping you could give me a hand with my own little problem?”

“Yeah sure I’d love to fight the ten foot tall dude so that the girl who can grow twenty feet tall on a whim doesn’t hafta risk breaking a nail.”

“I don’t know how to fight!”

“You don’t _need_ to know how to fight if you’re twice the other guy’s size just pick him up and throw him or something!”

“Where on _earth_ is Vienna?!”

“ _Fuuuuuuuuck!_ ” As if on cue, Vienna shouted an expletive from on high – both girls took a brief moment to look up. The bat man, it seemed, had elected to take off into the sky, and had somehow managed to take Vienna with him. The rabbit was clinging tightly to his back, and he was flying wildly through the sky, bucking and doing loop-de-loops and taking erratic turns in an attempt to knock her off. Her hands were currently busy holding on for dear life, so she couldn’t use her shields to counterattack, leaving her trapped just trying not to fucking fall to her death. “ _Land_ , motherfucker! _Land!_ ” If the bat man understood her, it kept that to itself, instead screeching and intensifying its efforts.

“I... Don’t think we’re going to be seeing any help from Vienna any time soon.”

“I’ll deal with bigmouth here, you get over yourself and step on the elephant and then try and help Vienna!”

“Okay, fine,” Erin muttered to herself, turning her full attention back to the _very large_ man who was slowly advancing on her. He’d had the common courtesy to hold off from just stepping on _her_ while she was talking with Ursula – or perhaps he didn’t particularly see the need to rush. She wasn’t exactly a threat to him given their relative sizes and the fact that Erin was, at the end of the day, a squishy nerd.

Which, now that she thought about it, was odd. Ami almost _certainly_ knew about Erin’s superpower at this point, considering she’d very prominently used it to... _deal with_ Phix. So, if the elephant man was another avatar Ami was using, by extension he _also_ had to know that she could get bigger. Maybe she was just _that_ confident that she could out-fight a giant Erin now that she knew it was coming. Or maybe she was just _that_ committed to the character. Erin wasn’t really sure which was the case and frankly she didn’t care. She just wanted _rid_ of the elephant man.

Erin unceremoniously discarded her backpack. She didn’t want it getting in the way. “Titania, it seems we’re on our own. Let’s try _not_ to end up unconscious for more than a day this time.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Green and yellow ink bubbled to the surface and swelling outward as Erin flowed larger in one fluid motion. As tall as the elephant man, and then taller. What she lacked in bulk, she made up in raw size. She didn’t go to the full twenty feet, but she didn’t particularly need to – fifteen feet already rendered him roughly child-sized in comparison to her.

He balked slightly, reacting in (seemingly) genuine surprise at her sudden growth. Either Ami had somehow managed to _forget_ that Erin could do that, or she was in fact _that_ committed to staying in character. She elected to not give him the opportunity to gather his wits, grabbing him by his tusks and then immediately realized she had no idea what the _fuck_ to do next. She operated on instinct, wrenching his head hard to the right before he could start to fight back, pulling his legs out from under him and slamming him to the ground. Taking a cue from Ursula’s handling of the boar man, she quickly stomped, aiming for his tusks. He let out a pained trumpet as his left tusk snapped off like a twig.

The elephant man scrambled backwards, in an attempt to pull himself back together. With one tusk missing he was significantly less potentially stabby, but it also meant Erin wouldn’t be able to pull the same trick again – not enough leverage. So she moved to press her advantage, somehow. “Oh no you _don’t_ ,” she said, moving on instinct. And her instincts said to hold him in place the only way she knew how; by abusing her larger size. She _jumped_ in the air and came down on top of him boobs-first.

She very briefly worried that she’d made a poor decision. Her boobs were _big_ , yes, but also very soft. Cushioning the blow was probably a poor idea. The somewhat sickening _crunch_ that resulted, however, mostly assuaged her fears. Tentatively, she pulled herself back up off the suddenly motionless elephant man. “Oh, dear,” she muttered. He seemed to be dead, or at the very least stunned. A part of her hoped it was the latter. Which... was silly, really. He was trying to kill her, after all. And he wasn’t _real_ , regardless, so it wasn’t like she’d have actually killed a real person.

But, well, he sure _felt_ like a real person. That alone was enough to set off an instinctive guilt and a welling panic in the pit of her stomach. She immediately began struggling to swallow it back – now was, without a doubt, the absolute _worst_ time possible to have a panic attack. Or at _least_ comparable to ‘while in the middle of a life or death game of riddles’. But still, even though it was the worst possible time and even though it wasn’t real, she couldn’t fight back that instinctive terror. She’d crossed that line. She’d _killed someone_.

Wait hold on no she hadn’t his trunk was snaking its way around her leg. If he’d been a bit quicker he could probably have caught her off guard and taken the advantage back, noticing he was still alive was enough to knock her out of the panic attack. He’d also made the critical mistake of putting his mouth in fairly easy reach of her foot, and got himself a light kick to the teeth for his trouble. That jarred her foot loose of his trunk, and so the _second_ kick to his teeth had a _windup_. There was a light splatter of blood on her green-inked foot. She followed up by stomping on his other tusk several times until it also snapped off. “I have had _more_ than enough of you, thank you very much.”

The elephant man writhed in pain, clutching at his face and letting out low rumbling moans. He was _probably_ out of the fight, but just to be sure, Erin turned around and _sat_ on him. “There. You’re staying right where you are for now.” He struggled beneath her, but just wasn’t strong enough to move what was likely several tonnes of mouse off of him. “How are you holding up?”

“Juuuuuust dandy, thanks.” Ursula had somehow managed to make exactly zero progress struggling with the alligator man. It was a perfect stalemate, even moreso than the boar had been. “It turns out smiles here’s got a _really_ strong jaw.”

“Would you like a hand?”

“No, you need to keep the big guy pinned. How’s Vienna doing?”

“She seems... busy.”

“ _Lovely_. Try and... I don’t know, grab her outta the air or something?”

“I don’t want to hurt her.”

“Stop sitting on your asses talking about nothing and _help me!_ ” Vienna interjected as the bat man swooped within range. It immediately swooped back _out_ of range in an erratic loop. Keeping her grip was getting _increasingly_ difficult. “Edifice, _please_ tell me you have a plan.”

“Yes.”

“Okay! We’re getting somewhere!”

“You’re not going to like it.”

“It’s _gotta_ be better than what I’ve managed to come up with!”

“Okay. I’m going to take control.”

“Just _do something already._ ”

“Okay.” With that, Edifice let go of the bat man.

“wait what the fuck did you just do.”

“Just trust me!” Edifice snapped as they began to plummet. Vienna, surprisingly, found herself not panicking. She was _very far_ beyond panic. Like a small spot of tranquility in the centre of a hurricane. She was high up enough that the best case scenario involved breaking every god damn bone in her body. She didn’t want to think about the worst case scenario. Being inked might have helped, but a fifty foot drop was a fifty foot drop. She was just going to splat on the sidewalk a bit more literally.

Edifice _didn’t_ panic. Instead, she made use of her now free hands to create a shield around herself just in time for them to collide heavily with the ground. Vienna’s vision swam and her whole body hurt, but she wasn’t dead. Edifice didn’t seem to react to the pain, instead immediately catching the bat man with another shield and sending him crashing into a building. “Delphi, let go now!” Ursula obeyed the command instinctively, pulling away just in time for Edifice to pull the bat man out of the building and slam him into the Alligator man. She lifted him one final time, arcing him through the air before hitting the elephant man in the skull. She took a moment to make sure all three were dead, or at least unconscious. “There. Do you have anything else up your sleeves, or can we go now?”

Beastmaker glowered furiously from a good distance away. There was a palpable tension in the air, all three girls waiting anxiously for whatever he was going to throw at them next. Not a one of them was capable of more fighting, physically _or_ mentally. Ursula collected herself as best as she could, Erin nervously removed herself from the elephant man’s body, and Vienna just let Edifice remain in control of their body. She just _hurt_ too much to do anything else. All of them waited for the other shoe to drop.

Suddenly, an eager grin plastered itself on Beastmaker’s face, and he began to clap. Slowly at first, and then faster until he was giving them a one-man standing ovation. “That was _awesome!_ ” Ami said.

“What.”

“You guys _totally_ kicked my butt! I was like ‘ _grrrr_ ’ and you were like ‘ _no way_ ’ and then you were like ‘BOOM’ and I was like ‘oh no!’ and then Erin crushed me with her boobs!” Ami continued rambling for several minutes, pantomiming the fight like a child re-enacting a cool fight scene from a movie, which looked outright comical coming from Beastmaker. “See, isn’t it way more fun if you just play along?”

Something inside of Vienna snapped. “Fun? _Fun?!_ You were _trying to kill us!_ ”

“Well, yeah, it’s no fun if I pull my punches.” She shrugged. “I mean, you guys can clearly handle it, so I’d say I struck a good balance. Heck, I could probably stand to go a bit harder!”

“A good- did you _see_ what just happened?!”  
  


“Yeah, you pretty well curbstomped me. I don’t think any of you even took any hits?”

“I _fell like fifty feet!_ ”

“Okay, okay, fine, no flying enemies next time, but you seem pretty spry for someone who fell like fifty feet.”

“I-” That was, she realized, a good point. She _hurt_ , yes, but not nearly as much as she by all rights _should_ have hurt. Between the Ink and the shield, she probably had some nasty bruises at worst. She’d injured herself worse when she’d fallen over at slightly the wrong angle. “Okay, fine. But you-”

“ _Anyway_ , that’s enough of that. I’m gonna leave you guys to cool down and recover. Oh, yeah, where’s Viola? I know she’s not much of a fighter, but I figured it could have been fun to defend her from the mooks or something?”

“ _You kidnapped her!_ ”

“What? No I didn’t.” Ami’s reply was annoyed and somewhat indignant. It sounded genuine, like everything she said. Vienna would _almost_ have believed her, were it not for the fact that she knew for a fact it was a lie.

“You took her! Those... weird soldier dudes from the entrance.”

“They did?” Once again, Ami’s bafflement seemed unsettlingly genuine. “What are they _thinking?_ They’re not supposed to... _Ugh_.” She threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “You! Stay _put!_ I’m going to go _fix this mess!_ ”

With that, Ami abruptly vanished, leaving the girls once again on their own. The bodies of the beast men also vanished into thin air, as did all the damage from the fight. Like it had never happened, aside from the bruises and the exhaustion.

Their Inklings receded, vanishing to whatever metaphysical space they occupied when the girls weren’t inked. Delphi had attempted to explain, and it completely went over Ursula’s head so she’d given up after thirty seconds. Vienna collapsed backwards, sitting _slightly_ too heavily on the asphalt ground. “Oof,” she grunted. “What the _fuck_ just happened?”

“I have no idea.” Erin wandered over to a building, leaned against a window, and allowed her body to _drop_ , sliding down into a sitting position. “We seem to have wasted all our stamina on a fight that we were always going to win.”

“You think so?”

“I was pretty sloppy,” Ursula interjected. “Showboated a lot, relied on the same tactic over and over. I only beat chompy ‘cos Vienna pulled through in a pinch.”

“And I mostly copied Ursula,” Erin added with a nod. “I almost get the feeling I didn’t get hurt because Ami _let_ me win.”

“Now that you mention it, the only time any of us took any real damage was _me_ letting go of the bat.”

“You don’t think-”

“No. It doesn’t make sense.”

“I find myself unsure what _does_ make sense anymore,” Erin muttered. “It feels like every time I’ve gotten a grasp of the situation, something happens that completely undermines everything.”

“Well,” Vienna said, pulling herself upright. She stood, shakily and unsteadily. Now that the adrenaline rush was fading and that Edifice had retreated, her whole body suddenly _ached_. Especially the point of impact. “We’re not gonna figure out anything just sitting on our asses.”

“Oh hell no.” Ursula stormed over and grabbed Vienna firmly by the shoulder. “You’re not going _anywhere_ until you’ve recovered.”

“But Viola-”

“Is a big girl. I’m _certain_ that she can take care of herself.”

“Look at you, you’re barely standing. What would Viola say if you got yourself hurt trying to rescue her? Or _worse_.”

“I don’t think there’s a worse. Ami’s pulling her punches, right?”

“We don’t know that. She seems to want us to _win_ , but we can’t say for sure she wouldn’t kill us if we lose.” Erin shrugged. “Besides, I don’t know about Ursula, but I am _exhausted_. We’ve made a good amount of progress, I think, but the killer robot has a point. We should _rest_.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Ursula said. She gently pushed on Vienna’s shoulder until the rabbit gave up and flopped backwards, resting against the larger girl. Satisfied that Vienna wasn’t going to push herself, the doberman dragged her over to the wall Erin was resting against and sat her down beside the mouse. “Come on, let’s eat something.”

“Yeah, okay.” Vienna reached to her back, and then froze. “Where the fuck is the backpack?”

“Shit. It musta fallen off.”

“Relax, darlings. I saw this coming. Vienna, do you still have your PET?”

“Yeah.”

“I put mine in the backpack and set up the peoplefinder app. All we have to do is go to where it is. Um, assuming Ami will let us.”

“Right,” Vienna muttered, once again pulling herself upright. “I guess we’re not having a break after all.”

~~~~~~

“Hey kid, catch.”

“Huh? Ack!” Once again, Viola found something hurled at her face. This time she managed to catch it, which was good because it was her PET.

“Congratulations,” Makoto groused. “You’ve been well behaved enough to earn your phone privileges back. Try and escape again and I’ll smash it.”

“Okay.”

“You got good taste in music, by the way,” Bob interjected. “The stuff I recognized at least. Top tier.”

“Okay.” Viola cringed into herself, desperately hoping they would go back to leaving her alone.

Once they did just that, she turned her attention to her PET. She elected not to touch the peoplefinder. Unlike Ursula, she’d not sprung for a nice model – a generic model rather than a nicer name brand like Fantastic Dynamics or Travers Innovations or Antronics or Mentek or Divido or whatever. It wasn’t expensive, she hadn’t put in months of work to save up for it. But she still didn’t relish the thought of Makoto smashing it.

She fiddled idly with it, but ultimately found herself not really feeling like doing anything with it. None of her modest game or music collection really spoke to her, and she felt like sneaking in some stress relief would probably be a really bad idea. So instead she just sat and did nothing. Just like she had _before_ she got her PET back. God, she wanted to go _home_.

“What the _hell_ are you _doing!_ ”

Viola found herself jolted out of her boredom. She knew that voice. It was Ami.

“They were hangin’ round the exit,” Bob replied with a shrug. He was speaking to a strange looking pre-splice man in a bloodstained labcoat. One of Ami’s avatars, she assumed. She didn’t even bother trying to fathom the context. “Probably thinkin’ ‘bout escapin’. We gave ‘em incentive not to.”

“Well, _don’t_ ,” Ami snapped back. “You only interact with them if they _do_ try to escape, not if they _think_ about it. And _what part of don’t kill them did you not get!_ ”

“Hey, that wasn’t our fault,” Yuri interrupted. “They ran off before we could do anything. Which wouldn’t have happened if you told us they had superpowers, by the way.”

“I only sorta knew they had superpowers though! And anyway, what part of ‘nonlethal’ made you think it was a good idea to _shoot her arm off!!!_ ”

Bob shrugged, unintimidated. “They _didn’t_ die, that’s the important thing. As I recall, you specifically said we’re free to enact your orders as we see fit. So I don’t really see the problem with takin’ Viola. We’re just doin’ what you told us to.”

“Okay, well, maybe _don’t_. There’s rules for a reason and I don’t appreciate you bending them. I-”

The argument stopped abruptly. Viola briefly panicked – had Ami noticed her listening in? Or maybe someone else had found the shack and her attention was on them? Regardless of what had made Ami interrupt herself, it probably wasn’t going to be good for Viola.

“Oh. Oh, huh. That’s interesting. That’s _very_ interesting.” Ami’s avatar turned to look directly at Viola. “Hey, you’ve still got your phone thing, right?”

“Um. Yeah?”

“Okay, good. I was worried you’d lost it like Ursula did. I just picked up a broadcast from Locksmouth and I... I _think_ you’re gonna wanna see this.”

“What?” Viola’s mind raced with possibilities. Foremost in her mind was a call from Papa, or maybe one of the Ecksteins or the Lerouxs. Or, hell, she’d have taken _any_ information on the situation in Locksmouth at all.

In a way, she got exactly that. Her PET let out a sharp chirp, an emergency alert not unlike the one that had set off this whole mess. Hand shaking, she opened the call.

~~~~~~

Scarlet Eckstein hadn’t been having a particularly good day. If one wanted to get technical she’d not been having a particularly good _series_ of days, but today was exceptionally bad because she’d lost track of Leanne. Currently Locksmouth looked like a god damn post-apocalyptic wasteland and also there were actual god damn real life monsters crawling around god damn everywhere, so she _really_ didn’t relish being on her own. And of _course_ they wouldn’t even have been inside the dome had she not insisted on coming along with Leanne on the wildlife survey and then been completely fucking unable to handle the wilderness for more than thirty seconds. So it was _basically_ her fault Leanne was in trouble.

Also her butt hurt. And she’d not showered in _days_. Her tail, normally perfectly cleaned and maintained, big and fluffy and soft, was instead a fucking _mess_. Everything about her was a mess, really, but she was a skunk so her tail being a mess stood out.

“Leanne, where _are_ you?” she muttered to herself as she curled tightly into a ball. She’d made the decision to stay _put_. If Leanne _was_ okay, and came back to find Scarlet but Scarlet had left to go find Leanne then they’d just stay separated. Probably forever. So instead she stayed in place even though it had been a _while_ and she was running low on food and water (which is why Leanne had left in the first place) and it was cold and wet and her butt hurt and-

Her internal monologue was interrupted by a noise. Like... well, like footsteps. Maybe it was another person. Maybe it was Leanne! Or, on the opposite extreme, maybe it was one of those weird grey zombie things. She scooted backwards, pressing her back more firmly against the wall of the bombed out building they were using as shelter. “H-hello?” she eventually squeaked, barely audible. It was probably a bad idea, but she was desperate enough to take the admittedly extreme risk.

“Ah! Hello, is there someone there?”

It wasn’t Leanne, unfortunately. The voice was a man, around her age maybe? The important thing was that he was a human and not a zombie or alien – they didn’t seem able to talk. “Yes! Hello, I’m here!”

“Hold on, I’m coming...” There was more noise, awkward uneven steps as whoever it was crawled their way through the wreckage and into the small room that Scarlet and Leanne had made into their base. The man was a horse, tall and somewhat lanky, dressed in messy looking office clothing with a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He also moved with a noticeable limp. “You, uh, you don’t mind if I hang out with you, do you? There were a bunch of people in a park but one of the people organizing it was an alien. Think I broke my leg getting outta there.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I’m pretty sure Leanne won’t mind. Um, assuming she comes back. I hope she comes back soon...”

“How long’s she been gone?”

“A while.”

“Oof. Well, I’m pretty sure she’ll be fine,” the horse said, somewhat patronizingly.

“Uh, yeah.” Scarlet nervously shuffled, but pulled away from the wall a bit. “Anyway, I’m glad you’re probably not a zombie or a monster.”

“I’m glad you’re not a zombie or a monster either,” the horse said with a chuckle. “Oh, I figure we should probably introduce ourselves, if we’re going to be a group.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I’m Scarlet. Scarlet Eckstein.”

The horse’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh. Well that’s one heck of a coincidence.”

“It is?”

“Yep. Vinnie Coniglio.”

“Oh. Oh! Like as in the twins?”

“Yep. Fancy meeting you here,” he said with a warm laugh.

“Yeah. Uh, nice to meet you. For the first time. Is that bad? You’d think a good parent would know her daughter’s girlfriends’ parents.”

“It’s fine,” Vinnie said with a dismissive wave. “We know each other _now_.”

“Yeah, I guess. God, I’ve not thought about Ursula in a while. I hope she’s okay...”

“She’s a tough kid. It’ll take more than us going missing for a few days to rattle her.”

“Yeah, I guess. Still, I-”

“Wait,” Vinnie interrupted. “I think I hear someone coming.”

The two clammed up, staying as silent as possible. There was, after all, the very real possibility that it was one of the monsters. And, well, now that Vinnie was here, Scarlet was no longer quite so desperate for companionship. It was a bigger risk.

“Hey, Scarlet? I’m back.”

That was all Scarlet needed to hear. “Leanne!” She jumped up and _ran_ to the entrance, tackling her wife to the ground. “Oh god I was so worried about you I thought you’d died or something you were gone for so long and-”

“Hey, hey, easy, I was out for like twenty minutes tops.” The taller bun gently stroked Scarlet’s hair. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m back now.” She pulled herself upright, the sobbing wreck that was her wife still clung to her midsection as she dragged herself in. “Oh! I see you made a friend.”

“Yeah. Um, this is Vinnie. Vinnie Coniglio.”

“Huh. No foolin’? Small world, huh.”

“Yep. It’s good to see some familiar faces. Or at least hear familiar names,” he corrected with another small chuckle.

“Speaking of familiar names, I come bearing more friends! Hey!” she shouted, poking her head out of the large hole that was acting as the door to their little hideaway. “It’s safe! C’mon in.”

“Just a minute!” came a reply.

“Wouldja believe I bumped into Erin’s moms?”

“That’s quite the coincidence.”

“Not really. Helen works outta Locksmouth and she can’t telecommute _all_ the time.” Leanne moved out of the way of the doorway. Shortly after, a small mousey woman with big round glasses (among other things) crawled into the room, followed by a large, stocky gila monster.

“U-um, hello,” the mouse said.

“Hey, Helen,” Vinnie said with a wave. “Pardon me for not getting up but I’m pretty sure my leg’s broken.”

“That’s great,” the gila monster (presumably Lauren) grumbled. “Having a guy with a broken leg is _exactly_ what we need if we get attacked by monsters.”

“ _Lauren_ ,” Helen snapped.

“Sorry, sorry. Just kinda stressed.”

“It’s fine, she’s got a point,” Vinnie said with a dismissive wave. “We’re all stressed. And this... isn’t exactly the most defensible position.”

“Yeah,” Leanne said wearily. “We’re still looking for a better place to hide out, but neither of us know the town very well. It’s all we can do to find enough food and water.”

“Speaking of which,” Lauren said, dumping a sack in the middle of the room. Several water bottles and food bars fell out, making it clear what it was full of. “Not the best haul, but _enough_.”

“I was thinking we could head to the university,” Helen said. “It was mostly intact when we were there and there’s a lot of places to hole up that are much sturdier than here.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Leanne said with a nod. Scarlet seemed to be content to remain quiet now that her wife was back and there were a bunch of strangers around, clinging tightly to the taller bun. “It’s kinda far, though, and I’m _not_ cool with leaving Vinnie behind.”

“I’ll be fine,” Vinnie said, as reassuring as he could manage. “I got all the way here from that park I forget the name of, I can probably get to the University.”

“Okay. Then it’s settled. Let’s take some time to recover and then-” Leanne found herself interrupted as every PET in the room went off at once. A sharp, shrill _chirp_ that signified an emergency frequency.

Everyone moved to answer it, acting on pure reflex. Of course they accepted it, it was an emergency broadcast.

There were six people on the other end. Five of them were aliens, those strange ink creatures, like the greys but in different colours. Vinnie recognized several of them from the incident at the park. The sixth somehow managed to stand out even more – he was a pre-splice human. Helen let out a choked _noise_ upon seeing him, somewhere between surprise and excitement and a little bit of fear.

After a moment, one of them stepped forward. The silhouette of a young girl, maybe slightly younger than their own daughters, but coated in shiny black ink and outlined in pink. “People of Locksmouth. Please lend me your attention,” she said after a moment. There was a subtle, almost imperceptible nervousness to her voice, but also a strength. “I can’t give you my name. To do so would endanger people dear to me. However, I _can_ tell you the name of the alien life form, the ‘Inkling’ I share my body with.”

There was another pause. Only a small one – were it not for the fact that everyone present had their _own_ teenage girls, they probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all. A subtle apprehension, the slightest hesitation before taking that one final step. “Her name is Echelon.”

~~~~~~

It was a lot for Viola to take in. _Inklings_ in Locksmouth. A comic book character come to life from before the splice. An evil intergalactic overlord bent on world domination! It all sounded like something out of a comic book. Clearly this was the civil war Delphi had mentioned. Maybe that was why Aubrey and her friends came to earth, to help Echelon in the fight against Empress Osoth. Maybe. She had no idea because as far as she knew Aubrey was still an amnesiac.

Though on the other hand, maybe the broadcast had been enough to jog Aubrey’s memories. She could feel a subtle but insistent nagging in the back of her mind, a familiar sensation that typically meant that Aubrey wanted to talk. It’d have to wait, though. Ami was still present, looming over her expectantly. “See? I told you there were aliens!”

“Uh, y-yeah. I guess you were right.”

“They kinda look like those goo things you and your friends have, maybe they’re the same thing?”

“Maybe,” Viola lied. She was almost _certain_ they _were_ the same thing, but she didn’t quite feel comfortable telling Ami that.

“Aliens! Invading earth! And there’s good aliens fighting them! And _Captain Comet_ is there! Actually really there! It’s _so cool!_ ”

“M-maybe Echelon and her friends will beat Osoth before you have to, um...” Viola trailed off as Ami’s expression soured.

“Hey. Don’t think this means the game’s off. You’ve still got to beat me before the time limit’s up or it’s bye bye Locksmouth.”

“R-right. Sorry.”

“Anyway, speaking of which! You should get going! Go get back to your friends so you can save the world and stuff!”

“Oh, um. I-I thought I was-”

“You thought wrong!” Ami’s exuberance was tinged with manic annoyance. “This whole thing _isn’t_ part of the game and has slowed you all down _way_ too much. You guys need to get back on schedule! Come on, up! Up!” The strange pre-splice man Ami was using as an avatar grabbed at her, pulling her upright and pushing her away. “I’ll deal with the soldiers, don’t worry about them. You’ve got friends to get back to. Give ‘em a call or something, let ‘em know you’re alright!”

“Okay, okay, I’m going! I’m going!” Viola cringed away from the physical contact, already making her way away. She was _more_ than happy to get away from the soldiers and Ami and back to her pack as soon as possible. She stormed off in an arbitrary direction for several minutes before running out of steam entirely, leaning tiredly against the nearest building. She was _exhausted_ , which was baffling considering she’d literally not moved all day. Maybe she just needed to eat something that wasn’t nutrient paste or energy bars.

“Viola. We need to talk.”

“Can it wait? I need to call the others and turn on the peoplefinder and-”

“ _Now_.” There was something... _different_ about Aubrey’s voice. Cold, but firm. The kind of voice Viola could never in a million years imagine coming from herself – the fact that they shared a voice made the whole thing slightly surreal.

“Okay, if it’s important,” she said, somewhat reluctantly. At the moment her priority was getting back to her friends.

“Fantoma.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Fantoma.”

Viola’s heart skipped a beat. “You remember your name?”

“I remember _everything_.”

Viola’s breath caught in her throat as she pulled away from the window and turned to look at her reflection. She’d considered the possibility idly, but now that it was actually a reality she almost struggled to react at all. It was something she’d been hoping for... pretty much since she’d first _met_ Aubrey. “Fantoma,” she said, enunciating every syllable carefully. Savouring the way it felt to say. Almost in awe. “I guess I’m going to have to get used to calling you that, huh?”

“Yeah...” Aubr- _Fantoma_ didn’t seem to be as happy as Viola would have expected. She sighed, looking her host directly in the eye. “Viola, I’ve got... something I need to tell you. It’s important, something to do with the broadcast. With Echelon.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. We’ve gotta get to Locksmouth, right?”

“Yes. As soon as possible, or your world will be doomed. It’s a matter of days.”

“Of course we do. You’ve gotta help beat Osoth, right?”

Fantoma took a sharp breath. “Right... About that.”

“Yes?”

“You’re... not going to like what I have to say next.”

Viola’s heart sank. It felt like a pit had opened up beneath her, and she was in freefall. The elation at learning that Aubrey had _finally_ remembered who she really was vanished, replaced with a deep apprehension. “W-what? What’s going on, I don’t-”

Fantoma raised a hand silently, waiting for Viola to stop. The harlequin rabbit cut herself off, scared and confused. Fantoma didn’t look happy. She could barely look her host in the eye, from the looks of it. “In order to save your world...” She paused, taking a deep breath and a few moments of silence. Presumably to collect her thoughts and to work up the courage to say whatever terrible thing needed to be said.

“In order to save your world, Echelon needs to die.”


	10. Act 10 - In Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The situation Viola's pack find themselves in has, against all odds, managed to get even worse. The true nature of the Locksmouth incident has been revealed - the Inkling civil war has come to earth. And their inklings, it seems, are on the wrong side of the conflict.
> 
> But they don't have the time to worry about the war in Locksmouth - because Ami's game is rapidly approaching it's climax. Three days remain, and progress has been slim. If they want to stand any chance of surviving, they're going to have to start finding answers.
> 
> Answers that only seem to raise even more questions.

The _last_ time Ursula’s PET had received an emergency alert, things hadn’t turned out well. Maybe that was why she felt a deep apprehension about this one. Or maybe she instinctively knew that an emergency alert was probably not going to be a good thing. Especially given the situation in Locksmouth – she couldn’t imagine it was going to be _good_ news. Regardless of why, she was _certain_ that it was going to be bad news before she even answered. And, unsurprisingly, she was right. “So, like, this is bad, right?”

“Is it?”

“I mean, there’s an alien civil war going on in Locksmouth. That’s not gonna turn out well for anybody.”

“I have to agree with Ursula, darling.” Erin fidgeted nervously. “Especially considering we have no idea what side of the conflict _our_ inklings are even on.”

“They’re the good guys, right? They’ve gotta be.”

“I dunno,” Ursula said, frowning slightly and crossing their arms. “If they _are_ the good guys they’re sure bein’ awful quiet about it.” She glared at her reflection, which remained decidedly _not_ Delphi.

“... Maybe they’re just tired. I don’t know, I just feel like it’s counterproductive to not trust them right now.”

“I’d kinda like to know for sure if the alien living in my brain is evil or not. She sure _looks_ evil, with all the black and red.”

“Purple and blue,” Ursula’s reflection snapped back at her.

“Oh, _now_ you feel like talking.”

“I severely doubt you would be willing to listen to reason, so I see no reason to even bother trying.”

“‘Don’t worry, Ursula! I’m not on the side of the _actual literal evil intergalactic space tyrant!_ ’ That’s _literally_ all you hafta say and this conversation is over.”

“It’s more complicated than that.”

“I fucking _knew_ it.”

“Ursula now isn’t the fucking time for this,” Vienna said wearily. She could _feel_ herself slipping back into that old rut of desperately trying to make peace with her friends while they picked fights at an inopportune moment. She didn’t like it. “Can we _please_ wait until we’re not in an underground death maze to start fights with our superpowers?”

“ _What_ superpowers?! Last I checked our ‘superstrength’ wasn’t enough to make any kinda difference against jaws, and you _won’t tell me what actual advantage you give me or even let me use it_.”

“Ursula-”

“Vienna, shut _up!_ I don’t care if y’all are okay with playing host to an actual literal evil alien bodysnatcher but I sure as fuck _ain’t_.”

“ _We’re not evil!_ ” That was Titania, manic almost to the point of screaming. Edifice had also replaced Vienna’s reflection, though she hadn’t _said_ anything yet, merely crossing her arms and looking as pensive as she was capable of.

“Well then fucking _say so!_ ”

“It’s _war_ you idiot child. There _are_ no ‘good guys’ or ‘bad guys.’ There’s only people who do bad things, people who do _worse_ things, and people who _die_ because they were unwilling to do bad things.”

That was the last straw. “Out.”

“Excuse me?”

“You fucking heard me. _Out_.”

“I would die.”

“ _I don’t fucking care_ ,” Ursula snapped. “I’m sick and fucking tired of being berated by you, and assuming Echelon’s broadcast was even _slightly_ close to the truth I’m not gonna lose any sleep over you dying.”

“ _Echelon’s broadcast was transparent propaganda!_ ” It was Delphi’s turn to shout. “But _fine_. In spite of the fact that you seem to have already decided not to trust me, I’ll explain to you exactly why you’d have to be a complete idiot to even _consider_ siding with Echelon in this conflict.”

“I thought you didn’t remember any details?”

“I didn’t. But the broadcast _did_ at least manage to fill in the last remaining blanks.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Of _course_ you don’t.”

“Just fucking get on with it.”

“Fine,” Delphi spat. “I will give Echelon credit for one thing. She did an _admirable_ job of taking a series of statements that were, in the most technical sense, not untrue and using it to spin a bald-faced lie by carefully omitting crucial facts.”

“Like _what?_ ”

“There are three key falsehoods. First; Echelon would have you believe that she and her allies are plucky underdogs fighting against an oppressive totalitarian regime. This is false. Though Osoth is very much a tyrant and a monster, what Echelon didn’t tell you is that until they decided to rebel, she and Arus were Osoth’s right and left hands. Her closest, most trusted generals.”

“Okay, fine, whatever. How do I know you’re not lying?”

“How do _you_ know _Echelon_ isn’t lying?”

Ursula wanted to respond with something witty or clever. She couldn’t. “Fine, that’s _one_ lie. You said there were three.”

“The second; Echelon would have you believe that her gathering of plucky underdogs stand any kind of chance of _beating_ the oppressive totalitarian regime if they just _try_ hard enough. This is _false_. Her war is futile. She knows this, I know this. Osoth is a _god_. Defeating her is impossible.”

“How do you know that? Maybe if you weren’t a _coward_ -”

“ _I am no coward_ ,” Delphi shouted, before taking a moment to regain her composure. “Osoth is not a normal inkling, though Echelon would conveniently leave out this fact. Osoth _creates_ inklings – and, if she so chooses, she could _unmake_ any one of us. The only reason Echelon’s rebellion didn’t end _immediately_ was because Osoth finds the whole thing _amusing_.”

“This Osoth sounds like a _stellar_ person. I can totally see why you’d want to follow her.”

“Believe me,” Delphi hissed. “Were it not almost _certainly_ a futile endeavour, I would turn on her in a _heartbeat_. In the billions of millennia her reign lasted before the civil war began, the number of hosts who died as a result of her rule was quite literally so impossibly vast that your numbers are incapable of expressing it in a fashion you could comprehend.”

“So she’s _gotta_ go down, right?”

“I _told you_ , it’s impossible.”

“Okay but say you’re right. What’s the harm in _trying?_ It’s better than doing nothing.”

“Because _after_ Echelon began her civil war, the number of hosts dead matched the number Osoth’s reign killed on its own over _l_ _iteral countless eons_ in less than five hundred years.”

Delphi’s words felt like a punch to the gut. Ursula physically reeled, if only slightly. “That’s... That’s one _hell_ of an escalation.”

“As I’ve said, it’s a _war_.” Delphi crossed her arms solemnly. “The third falsehood. Echelon would have you believe her hands are clean, that she’s a brave _hero_ fighting for the people. This is... This is false. Echelon is a cold, calculating warmonger. She doesn’t care about the _cost_ of her rebellion, about the sheer overwhelming number of worlds that are _gone forever_ with _nothing_ to show for it.”

Ursula took a few deep breaths. “I... Okay. That’s- that’s a compelling argument. I guess.”

“You _guess?_ ”

“I’ve only got your word to go on here, okay? You’re not wrong that Echelon’s not _more_ trustworthy, but... You’ve not exactly endeared yourself to me.”

“I saw no _reason_ to.”

“Clearly that was a mistake,” Edifice interjected. “A mistake... that we _all_ made. And now, when the situation is at its most dire, it’s come back to bite us.”

“Why would the situation be dire?” Erin asked.

“Because Echelon and Osoth are _here_. On earth,” Delphi replied. “Without some sort of intervention, humanity’s collective prana will likely run out in a matter of months.”

“Okay, yeah, uh... That sounds bad?”

“That would be the point where everyone is dead, yes.”

Ursula took a few steps backwards, almost completely overwhelmed. “This... this is a _lot_ to take in.”

“Well, you’ve not got a lot of time so take it in _quickly_.”

“I’m still not sure I believe you.”

“I am unsurprised.”

“If you don’t believe us,” Edifice interjected, “then what about Fantoma?”

“Who?”

“Aubrey.” Ursula frowned, but said nothing. “I understand that we’re not the most trustworthy source of information. We’ve only really known each other for a day or so, and... our interactions haven’t been the most positive so far. But Fantoma and Viola have known each other for ten years. If you don’t believe _her_ when she says it’s the only choice then I don’t know if you’ll believe anyone.”

The girls remained silent for a moment as each of them contemplated the next course of action. Eventually, Vienna stepped forward. “Fine,” she said tersely. A part of her sorely wanted to mend bridges with her Inkling, but... Ursula was _right_. She wanted to know for _certain_ as objectively as possible if Edifice was allied with an evil space tyrant or not before believing _anything_ she had to say. As it was, there was no reason not to assume they were lying, and Vienna could think of only one thing that might change her mind. “If Viola trusts you, I’ll trust you.”

“I agree with Vienna,” Erin said after a moment A part of her was screaming that Viola was absolutely the _worst_ possible person to ask this question. Of _course_ she was going to trust her imaginary friend. She had _almost_ said as much, but then Titania had shot her a pained look. She wasn’t sure why that was enough to get her to change her mind, but it was. “I... Trust Viola’s judgment.”

“Fine, fine, if Viola says you’re cool, you’re cool. But if Viola says you’re _not_ cool...” Ursula trailed off, leaving the remainder to implication. “Anyway,” she continued, somewhat glad to change the subject. “Suppose we decide to believe you’re the good guys and Echelon is the bad guy, despite _all_ of the _copious_ evidence to the contrary. How exactly do you propose we save the world?”

“We have to get to Locksmouth as soon as possible,” Edifice said, after a moment’s consideration. “And from there, we end the war.”

“... How, exactly, do we do that?” Vienna asked. She had a sinking suspicion as to what the answer was going to be, but she still felt the need to ask.

“By assassinating Echelon.”

~~~~~~

“No! Absolutely not!”

Fantoma took a sharp breath through clenched teeth, or at least mimed the action. “Viola...”

“ _I’m not killing someone_.”

“I _know_ and I don’t blame you. Believe me, if I could think of a way to end this war without anyone dying I would take it in a heartbeat but I _can’t_ and I’m _sorry for that_. But this war _has to end_.”

“Well it can end without me!”

“Viola if we don’t do something everyone on earth will _die_.”

“Everyone’s gonna die anyway,” Viola retorted. “Ami’s bombs, remember? Or are you too distracted by _murdering some random person_ unlucky enough to be the host for someone you don’t like?!”

“Fine! We deal with Ami _and_ Echelon, then.”

“ _Listen to yourself talk!_ You sound like a _psychopath!_ ” Viola threw up her hands, mostly just to get out some of that excess frustration. “If you want to kill Echelon so badly you can... You can find someone else to do it with!”

Fantoma winced, like she’d taken a punch to the gut. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Viola snapped. “Once we get out of here, you need to find a different host. Maybe _Lars_ would be down with _murdering_ some random stranger.”

Fantoma didn’t respond for a moment. “V-Viola, listen, I-”

“No! We’re not talking about this any more! I’m not killing Echelon and I’m not killing her host! If you’re so deadset on it then you can _leave!_ ”

“Viola, I-” Fantoma paused, taking a sharp intake of breath. “I don’t-” She abruptly collapsed forward against the window, sobbing heavily. “I’m sorry. Please don’t leave me.”

The haze of anger that had enveloped Viola’s thoughts evaporated in an instant. “Oh no! No, no, no, it’s fine. It’s fine. I’m sorry. We can talk this out.”

“No we can’t,” Fantoma choked out. “It’s... So many people are _dead_ , Viola. Inkling and host alike. And the war can keep going on and on, _forever_. _Will_ keep going on forever. I don’t want to leave you, but I _have_ to stop this.”

“I...” Viola frowned, the frustration once again bubbling to the surface. “You know what, I don’t think I like Fantoma very much.”

“I think I don’t much care for her myself,” Aubrey said quietly. “Why... Why did I have to drag you into this? Why couldn’t I think of... _anything_ else?!”

“I don’t know.” It was all Viola could think to say.

“Listen, Viola. There’s one other thing you need... You _deserve_ to know. Once we-” she cut herself off, taking a sharp breath. “Once we _deal with_ Echelon, however that ends up happening, Osoth isn’t going to be happy about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because she _enjoys_ the war,” Aubrey spat. “She finds it _fun_.”

“That’s... Awful.”

Aubrey nodded. “She’s a monster. But I don’t- I don’t know any other way. I’m sorry. I don’t know what she’ll do to me. So I need you to promise me something.”

“F-Aubrey, I-”

“When we do what needs to be done, I’m going to leave you. I need you to promise me you’ll run away as far and as fast as you can. Please don’t suffer for my mistakes.”

“ _No!_ ” The word came out instinctively, without any real thought from Viola. “I’m _not_ leaving you!”

“You were just saying that-”

“I don’t want to leave you if I can help it! You’re like... Like a _part_ of me.”

“That’s because we’ve been with each other so long,” Aubrey said with an understanding nod. “When a host and an inkling are bonded for extended periods of time, they start to become more and more alike. That’s why Echelon’s host is so dangerous.”

“Because she’s more likely to agree with Echelon?”

“Exactly.”

“Well... Maybe the opposite is true, too?”

“Hm?”

“Maybe... Maybe Echelon’s host has rubbed off on her enough that we can just... _talk_ to her?”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple,” Aubrey replied sadly. “But... There’s no harm in trying, I suppose.”

“Yeah,” Viola said with a smile. “Come on, let’s go find the others.”

“Not gonna happen, kid.”

Makoto moved fast, faster than Viola could ever hope to react to – she hadn’t even been _aware_ Makoto was anywhere nearby until the woman had a death-grip on her arm. “Since when were you allowed to leave?” she growled dangerously.

“S-since Ami said so!”

“God fucking _dammit_.” Makoto tightened her grip.

“You’re hurting me!”

“You’ll live.”

“Let go!”

“ _No_.”

Something about the way Makoto said that caused all of the adrenaline in Viola’s system to fade away. Dimly, she recalled how _effortlessly_ the woman had taken out Ursula, and her body cowered away instinctively. She wasn’t exactly a tall person – only slightly taller than Viola. But... somehow, in that instant, she seemed to _tower_ over the terrified rabbit.

“Viola,” Aubrey said. Makoto didn’t react even _slightly_. Of course she didn’t – the only people who could hear Aubrey while she was in the mirror were other people with inklings. “I have a plan, but... You’re going to have to trust me.”

This was probably a bad time for Aubrey to ask Viola to trust her. She’d known _Aubrey_ for more than half of her entire life now, but she’d only really known _Fantoma_ for a few minutes. And Fantoma... didn’t really seem to be a good person, and it was hard to tell where the one ended and the other began. In the end, though, she _wanted_ to trust that Aubrey knew what she was doing. Besides, she didn’t exactly relish being captured again.

“You need to stay _put_. Trust me, it’s for your own good.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

Makoto raised an eyebrow. “Wait, really?” She loosened her grip, ever so slightly. Not a part of the plan, but every little bit helped.

Blue and green liquid quickly flowed from nowhere, enveloping Viola’s body as Aubrey took control. She brought her free arm down on Makoto’s wrist with all the strength she could muster. Which wasn’t really _much_ – it was far beyond Viola’s baseline, but unfortunately Viola’s baseline wasn’t very high. It would have _absolutely_ been no match for Makoto had she not been caught off-guard. She didn’t manage to _hurt_ the soldier, but that _also_ wasn’t a part of the plan.

The circumstances added up to Makoto’s grip loosening further, just for a moment, just long enough for Aubrey to wrench free. She quickly leapt backwards, putting a good few feet of distance between them before shifting into a fighting stance. Working under Osoth had given her a _lot_ of experience as a fighter. Unfortunately, ten years bonded to Viola had done a number on those skills. Hopefully the seasoned soldier didn’t notice she was just mimicking something Viola had seen in a movie once. And, again, even inked, Viola just didn’t have the strength to match Makoto.

No, if they were going to get out of this, she was going to have to be _clever_.

“That was a bad move, you little _brat_ ,” Makoto growled. “We only need you _alive_. Not _intact_.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Aubrey replied. That, at least, wasn’t entirely false. If the soldiers were going to kill or even really seriously injure Viola, they would have done so by now. She was certain Makoto was a force to be reckoned with – the way she’d systematically dismantled Ursula earlier was evidence enough for that. But no, she was fairly sure Makoto was bluffing.

And even if she _wasn’t_ , Fantoma had some tricks up her sleeve.

“You should be.” The soldier glowered dangerously. “Ex-Yakuza enforcer, remember? I’ve got _extensive_ experience causing someone a _lot_ of pain without actually killing them.”

“I’d imagine you don’t have much experience doing that with only one arm, though.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Slowly, Makoto’s eyes followed Aubrey’s line of sight. The inkling was staring at the arm she’d held Viola with. Or, rather, where it _used_ to be and decidedly _wasn’t_ anymore.

“We’ve all got powers. Mine is to delete things. Your arm no longer exists.” Aubrey shifted her stance slightly, in what she _desperately_ hoped looked like she was about to attack and not just trying to make it look like she knew what she was doing. It didn’t matter; Makoto was busy staring at where her arm used to be in stunned silence.

And then, just like that, the tension vanished. Makoto relaxed, shifting out of her combat ready stance, and it was like a weight had been lifted from Aubrey’s chest. “Well, I’ll be damned. I didn’t even notice. Hell, I can even still feel it. Some kinda phantom pain bullshit or something.”

“ _Leave_ ,” Aubrey said, in what was supposed to be an intimidating tone, but it was _very difficult_ to sound intimidating using Viola’s voice. “Or next time I delete the rest of you.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. You’ll hear no complaints from me, kid.” Makoto raised her one remaining arm in a gesture of surrender. “I’m gonna have to re-evaluate my opinion of you. That was _almost_ a respectable move.”

“ _Leave. Now._ ”

“I’m going, I’m going,” Makoto said, turning to do just that. “Ah, one thing, though. Just a word of advice? When I say we’ve got you’re best interests in mind, that’s not a lie. If you ever want to see your families again, you should _seriously_ reconsider how you’re handling Ami’s game. That goes for all of you.”

With that, Makoto left. Just... walked away. Aubrey waited until she was out of sight before de-inking, leaving Viola to collapse backwards against the nearest building. “Oh my god.”

“Are you alright?”

“No but I’ll manage. You...”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I don’t blame you, you didn’t kill her and you got rid of her. I guess I’m just processing that I can apparently just make things not exist.”

“Ah, about that.”

“I mean, I guess it’ll be useful in this whole thing. Except could you even delete the weird monster things Ami makes? They’re like holograms but real, right? Do they count as real enough for your powers to work on or-”

“That’s not my power.”

Viola stopped talking for a moment. “Excuse me?”

“I was lying. My power is invisibility. I can turn myself and objects I touch invisible.”

“Oh. So... you were bluffing?”

“Yes.”

“Turned her arm invisible and then pretended you’d erased it from existence?”

“Yes.”

“And she could have just noticed her arm was still there at any time?”

“Yes.”

“Or called your bluff and tried to fight you anyway?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. I see.” Viola pulled out her PET and activated the peoplefinder app once again. “Hey, Aubrey? Or Fantoma or whatever you want me to call you? Would you mind taking over again for a bit?”

“Oh. Um, yes, I suppose so.”

“Good.” With that, Viola promptly passed out.

~~~~~~

In the end, it didn’t take very long for Aubrey to meet up with the others. They weren’t actually all that far apart, it seemed – for all she knew, considering how inconsistent space seemed to be in this place, they hadn’t actually left the entrance at any point.

They didn’t seem particularly happy to see her.

“Oh,” Vienna said. “Where’s Viola.”

“Asleep. It’s been... A long day.”

“Wake her up. I want to talk with her.”

“Vienna, darling, I think it’s best to let her get some rest,” Erin interjected in an uncharacteristically diplomatic manner.

“ _I want to talk to my god damn sister._ ”

“Okay,” Aubrey responded after a moment. “I’m sure she wants to talk to you too.”

None of Viola’s pack seemed particularly happy. Erin was twitchy and anxious, eyes darting about and arms crossed tightly under her breasts in a posture very reminiscent of her earlier panic attack. Ursula sullenly lurked a good distance from the others, arms crossed and expression foul. And Vienna was just _angry_ , giving Aubrey the mother of all death glares.

“I, ah, take it you’re... aware.”

“Viola. _Now_. Please.”

“Okay.” Aubrey could tell that she wasn’t particularly welcome. And she didn’t really want to push her luck much further. “You’re going to have to catch her. She’s still asleep.”

“Okay,” Vienna replied with a terse nod.

Aubrey didn’t bother even _trying_ to say anything else. There wasn’t any point in delaying further. She receded, and Viola fell forward into her twin’s waiting arms. “Wha..?” she muttered, dazed and confused.  
  


“Are you okay?”

“What?” This exchange was repeated several times before Viola finally managed to get her bearings. “Can I go sit down? We can talk, I’m just... very tired.”

“No. I’m hugging you.”

“Oh okay.” Viola hung limply in her sister’s arms – not that she didn’t appreciate the affection. She was just too fucking _exhausted_ to reciprocate. Fuck, she was practically on the verge of falling back asleep right then and there.

“I think that’s probably enough hugging for now, darling,” Erin interjected wearily. “Unfortunately, we have other priorities.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vienna muttered, slowly relinquishing her hold on Viola. Or _mostly_ relinquishing her hold. She kept a _little_ bit of a grip, to help prevent Viola from falling on her face while she wandered her way over to sit down against a building. “So what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Viola replied after a moment of thought.

“Darling, with all due respect, _you were there_.”

“I _know_ I was there, but... I don’t know. It was weird. It’s like...” Once again, she paused in an attempt to collect her thoughts, and once again she failed miserably. “It’s like every time I think I’ve gotten a hold of what’s going on here something happens and I’ve got no idea anymore.”

“Boy fuckin’ howdy do I hear you on that front,” Ursula said. At some point she’d wandered in from her place on the outside of the group and after interjecting she unceremoniously sat down next to Viola. “ _We_ had to fight a fucking Cap’n Comet villain.”

“Oh. I was wondering what was up with that.”

“You saw him?”

“I saw Ami but she looked like I guess what you had to fight still? And then she made them let me go.”

“Yeesh. I think I see what you mean.”

“We need to get out of here,” Vienna said, taking a seat on the other side of Viola.

“No fuckin’ kidding.”

“That’s hardly the most pressing reason for us to leave,” Erin said quietly.

“Right... That.”

The mood, which had very briefly seemed to lift, if only a little bit, came crashing right back down. “I... have a plan.” Viola muttered. “I dunno if it’s a _good_ plan, but...”

Ursula shrugged. “Hey, look, it’s _gotta_ be better than the other option on the table, right?”

“We need to get our pins set up before we can knock them down,” Erin said. “Ah, Viola, would you mind scooting forward a bit? Just for a moment.”

“Huh? Yeah okay, sure. Why?”

Erin didn’t respond, or at least not with words. She quickly took up Viola’s former place against the wall, pulling the smaller bun into her lap and nestling her head in between her breasts. “There. Much more comfortable than a cold wall.”

“Heh. Lookin’ at us like this, you’d almost think we were a normal, functional pack.”

“There’s nothing stopping us from just being a normal, functional pack, you know,” Vienna said.

“I guess you’re right. Something about being in a life or death situation like this really puts things into perspective.” Ursula flopped over, resting her head on Erin’s shoulder. “We can talk about important stuff later. Right now I just... kinda wanna just be with you all. It almost feels _normal_.”

“Normal is good,” Erin said with a nod, gently draping her arms over Viola’s shoulders and then pulling her into a hug from behind. The action drew a strained, croaking _squeak_ from the smaller bun, and Erin immediately pulled her arms back. “Oh! Are you alright, Viola?”

Viola stumbled forward, out of the warm comforting embrace of Erin’s giant fucking boobs, blushing _furiously_. “It’s fine! I’m fine!”

“You don’t _sound_ fine, darling. And you’re certainly not _acting_ fine.”

“ _I’m fine_ ,” Viola repeated, trying very hard not to think of Erin’s boobs. Not that she particularly _minded_ having her head between Erin’s boobs, of course. It’s just that now was probably not a good time to let her libido get out of control. As though “out of control” wasn’t its default state. “Just... sorry. Give me a second to calm down.”

“Calm down?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“I mean, maybe that’d be a good thing?” Everyone _immediately_ turned to look at Vienna, mostly because she was the _last_ person _anyone_ thought would suggest that specific course of action. “O-obviously I’m no expert on the subject, but if we wanna pretend to be a normal pack in a normal situation for a bit, what’s a more normal pack activity than OC?”

“I... I guess,” Viola said. “Are you okay with that, though?”

Vienna shrugged. “ _That_ ship’s kinda sailed at this point,” she said, only blushing a _little_ bit, to her credit. “Everyone knows at this point. And I’ve, uh, given it a test drive. Sort of. Might as well start getting comfortable with it.”

“That’s probably a good idea, but you’re _clearly_ still hung up on this whole winkie thing,” Ursula said, leaning over Erin to look Vienna in the eye. “Like, I can understand wanting to learn how to swim, but immediately jumping into the OC orgy deep end is a good way to drown, yanno?”

“Um,” Erin said, blushing significantly more than Vienna. “It’s a bit late for that.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?” Ursula said, turning to look at Erin. “... Oh my god, you _didn’t_.”

“Technically not. It was a dream, after all.”

“Oh my _god_.”

“It was only a titfuck!”

“I saw it first!”

“Yes, well, maybe you should have seized the opportunity when it presented itself.”

“Guys I’m the one who gets to decide who I have sex with first,” Vienna said wearily, though she had a smile on her face. “Besides, technically Viola saw it first.”

“If you wanna get _pedantic_ , then your mom probably saw it first.”

“I-”

“Fuck it, oral code: 8643. Sensitivity profile ‘Pigs Fly’.”

“What?”

Viola’s answer consisted of flinging herself face-first into Erin’s boobs and _enjoying_ herself.

~~~~~~

The sex had been good. That was about the best that Ursula could say about it, now that it was over. Not that it had been bad – as stated, it had been good. The problem was that now that it was over and the distraction had long since past, the reality of the situation was beginning to sink in once again. It had been bad enough when they were trying to save the world from a crazy pre-splice robot with apocalyptic bombs. But there was _clearly_ more going on than just that – though exactly _what_ still eluded her, which was the frustrating part of it all. At least she’d known where she _stood_ with the nukes. Ami was the bad guy and everything in the city was some sort of weird augmented reality manifestation Ami had created to kill them.

Except Ami seemed to _want them to beat her_. And the soldiers, who she’d _thought_ were just more of Ami’s manifestations, seemed to have their own agenda that ran contrary to Ami’s. And she didn’t know what _either_ side actually _wanted_. She had briefly considered that maybe the alien invasion had been entirely manufactured by Ami somehow, in order to lure someone in and motivate them to participate in _whatever_ this was. But that theory had been thrown out the window entirely when it turned out that no actually the alien invasion was _very_ much real and their dream demons were involved in it. And not only that, they were on the side that would be the _bad guys_ in the movie this plot had clearly been stolen from.

“Speaking of dream demons,” she muttered sullenly, staring at the familiar landscape of her dreams. She knew how this worked. It started with a big, empty black void. Then the void would slowly be filled with stars and purple outlines – which she now recognized as Delphi – and the outlines would start reenacting the past. She _really_ wasn’t in the mood for this shit. “Hey, can we maybe skip this bullshit tonight? I’d like to get a relatively good night’s sleep for fucking once.” She paused, and received no response. “Or at _least_ do this somewhere else? _Please?_ ”

“Go away.”

Delphi had _definitely_ not been there before, but she was now. Sitting on the ground – squatting, really, with her knees pulled close to her chest.

“It’s my dream, I’ve got more right to be here than you.”

“ _Please go away_ ,” Delphi repeated tersely. “Don’t worry about your precious sleep being interrupted, I’ve other priorities tonight, but I need to _concentrate_.”

“Oh, what, too busy deciding who else you wanna kill for disagreeing with you to make my life miserable?”

Delphi let out a slow, hissing breath, reaching up to rub her temples. “Fine,” she said after a moment. “Think of me what you want. I no longer care. We’re all going to die soon, anyway.”

“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

“ _Think_ , child. There is a war going on, and we are acting outside of the confines of either side in order to end it. What do you think is going to happen when we inevitably fail?”

“Who says you’re gonna fail?”

“Suppose we resort to attempting diplomacy, what do you think will happen?”

“I dunno, we’ll hafta wait and see how Echelon reacts to what you have to say.”

“Hello, Echelon! We’re here to politely ask that you end your rebellion for the sake of the countless lives that have been lost and will be lost as a result of it in spite of having consistently shown yourself to place little to no value on all of those lost lives in the past! And if you don’t stop your rebellion we’re going to have to make you do so by force but we’d really rather not if that’s all right with you!”

“... Well, okay, when you put it like _that_.”

“Hopefully by the time we actually confront Echelon I will have found a better way to word it, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is not going to take kindly to our request regardless. And that’s assuming the _best_ case scenario where we manage to get to Echelon before Osoth gets to _us_.”

“I thought you were loyal to Osoth?”

“Osoth _e_ _njoys_ this war. Tell me, how do you think she’s going to react to learning that we not only disobeyed her direct orders and abandoned our duties, but we did so with the express intent of taking away her favourite toys? Osoth is going to _kill_ us, and the _best_ outcome for you is that she’ll kill you too.”

“That doesn’t sound very best.”

“The _worst_ outcome is that she’ll give you a new inkling who is decidedly less generous than I when it comes to letting you have personal autonomy over your body,” Delphi responded tersely.

“Okay. Fair. Whatever.” Ursula threw her hands up in exasperation. “We’re destined to fail miserably no matter what we do. What do you propose we do about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not helpful!”

“It’s not supposed to be.”

“Well could you maybe try _not_ being intentionally unhelpful?”

“No.”

“ _Ugh_.”

“If I could help, believe me, I _would_. What do you expect me to do?”

“At _least_ don’t constantly bitch and moan about how we’re all gonna die. Try and be a little optimistic, at least?”

“Optimistic about _what?_ How exactly am I supposed to look at the bright side when _there is none_.” She pulled her knees tighter against herself. “We’re all going to die and it’s all my fault.”

“Hold on, what? How is any of this your fault.”

Once again, Delphi inhaled sharply. “The plan was to pick a world Echelon was likely to visit, intercept her before Osoth could arrive, and then kill her before Osoth could get here. Obviously that didn’t exactly work out.”

“Okay cool you’ve still not explained how this is your fault.”

“I’m _getting_ to it. Don’t interrupt.”

“Whatever.”

“The _reason_ this is my fault is because I was the one who made the decision to go to _this_ world.”

“Well, I mean, you kind of did a good job on that one? Echelon _did_ end up coming here, right?”

“She wasn’t _supposed_ to.”

“... What?”

Delphi took an unsteady breath. “Echelon was never supposed to come here. Nor was Osoth. I... my intention was for us to never have to follow through on our plan.” She pulled her knees even tighter against her body, quivering slightly. “You were right. I’m a coward. Feel free to gloat.”

Ursula glowered for a moment, though really she wasn’t sure how to react. After a moment, she sat down across from Delphi and did her best to look the Inkling in the eyes. “Look,” she said. “I’m not gonna gloat. Not now, at least.”

“Don’t mock me.”

“ _I’m not mocking you_. For fuck’s sake.” Ursula sighed, mildly exasperated. “Listen. You obviously don’t like me and I don’t really like you all that much either. But it’s _pretty fuckin’ obvious_ that there’s a lot more to this than you’ve told me so far, and... honestly, it’s in our best interests to at least _try_ and get along.”

“Mnrf.”

“So, what do you say we just... take things as they come for now, you know?”

Delphi glared at Ursula silently over her knees for an uncomfortably long period of time. “... Fine,” she said eventually. “You’re right.”

“So you’re gonna be civil?”

“I didn’t say that. But... I’ll try to be a bit more cooperative.”

“You know what? Fuck it, I’ll take it. Better’n nothing.”

“Smart girl. Now, come on. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Work?”

Delphi nodded, her posture relaxing a little. “You’re concerned about Ami’s motives, and the soldiers, and the nature of this place.”

“A little bit, yeah.”

“I can help with that. You just need to trust me.”

Ursula shrugged. “I’ll trust you if you trust me.”

“Good, because this is very far back and I’ll need your help for any kind of clarity. Oh, yes, by the way, I’m going to have to interrupt your sleep after all.”

“That’s fine,” Ursula said. “At least this time we’re sorta doin’ it on my own terms.”

“Good. Then let’s begin.”

~~~~~~

Erin had never been good with people. A side effect of her mental illness, to a degree. It was probably not as bad as if she had Social Disassociation Disorder, but IEDD wasn’t exactly much better. When she was younger she was angry a lot, and when she wasn’t angry she was _tired_ and didn’t know why. It took a very long time for her parents to even realize that there was more to her temper than just the fact that she was a child who didn’t know how to deal with negative emotions in a healthy way yet. It wasn’t until she lost control in a very public and violent fashion that it really _clicked_ that this was a _problem_. Thankfully, she was only seven at the time and wasn’t really capable of causing any real damage. From there, actual progress could be made in treating her.

Sensory Replacement Therapy wasn’t really _bad_. There was a cultural stigma to it, but the actual process mostly consisted of spending a few hours every day talking her problems out with a doctor in a safe environment and then spending the rest of her day at home. Her mothers both dedicated a lot of time to keeping her caught up on her education, so she didn’t have to miss any school. Eventually, her doctor decreed that she was fixed _enough_ that she didn’t need Sensrep anymore. Then her family moved to Esterwood, to escape the stigma associated with having a breakdown and attacking someone.

But, well, the brain gremlins hadn’t ever really _gone away_. They’d just gotten quieter. Erin spent seven years of her life with something in her head keeping her from interacting with others like a normal human being, one further year almost completely removed from people her age entirely, and then when she moved to Esterwood she’d very quickly fallen in with Ursula and the twins and been summarily labelled a weirdo. So, while she didn’t have SDD, her social experience was extremely limited.

Which probably went a long way towards explaining why she was so completely incapable of handling the current situation. There was Titania, curled up on the nondescript dreamscape ground, sobbing uncontrollably. And Erin had _no earthly idea_ what to do.

“U-um, are- Are you okay?” God, she felt like such a fucking idiot. Was that really the best that she could do? “You’re not okay, are you.” No response, just more sobbing. Lovely. It probably didn’t help that Titania was an alien – even if Erin _wasn’t_ socially awkward, there was no _way_ it’d be easy to wrap her head around an ancient interdimensional alien’s mind thought processes. But she had to do _something_ , and ideally something more effective than dumbly asking “are you okay?”

She took a deep breath, and thought back to her own therapy as she steeled her nerves. “Titania. Talk to me. _Please_.”

“I’m not going back,” Titania muttered to herself in between sobs. “I’m never going back. I’m not going to fight anymore.”

“You won’t have to,” Erin said, as gently as she was capable of (which honestly probably wasn’t very). “I promise.” She wished that she could be more helpful, but this would have to do for now.

It seemed to have worked, at least. Titania didn’t stop crying, but she did at least slow down a bit, slowly looking up at Erin. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

“You won’t have to.”

“I wish I could believe you,” Titania replied sullenly. Erin didn’t blame her, considering it had been mostly empty platitudes.

She sat down on the ground, maintaining eye contact. “I’m sorry. I wish I could be more helpful.”

“Don’t apologize. Just being here helps. Besides, I... doubt this will go much better for you than it will for me.” She winced slightly. “Osoth is not known for being kind to hosts, as I recall.”

“You recall?”

“My memories aren’t as... complete as the others,” Titania said quietly. “Delphi told you that as an inkling spends time in a host they become more and more alike, yes?”

“I seem to recall something like that.”

“My hosts were always large, angry, mindless animals. Osoth created me to take the biggest, angriest monsters nature created and turn them into living siege weapons.”

“Ah. I, um, I can see how that might do a number on your lucidity.”

“To be honest, when we decided on this plan, I... really only agreed to it in the hopes that Echelon would never actually come. But now she’s _here_ and she’s brought Osoth with her and they’re going to make me go back and I’m going to lose myself again.” Once again, the inkling began to fight back terrified sobs. “I don’t want to lose myself again.”

It was pathetic. Though Erin didn’t particularly like using that word – it carried a dismissive, condescending connotation. And that wasn’t how she felt at all. It was _sad_ and she _hated_ it. Hated how _powerless_ to help she was. “I...” she started, and then stopped. There was nothing she could say. Nothing she could _do_. “I don’t know how, but I’ll do everything I can to protect you. I don’t want you to lose yourself again, either.”

Titania stayed silent for an uncomfortably long time. Erin’s heart started to sink as she realized that her empty platitudes hadn’t really helped anything. Titania’s eventual weak smile all but confirmed that suspicion. “Thank you. It... Means a lot. Really.”

“Right.” That was pretty much every trick Erin had. She just wasn’t _capable_ of doing any more. All she had were words, and words weren’t good enough. “I’m sorry I can’t do more,” she said dejectedly. “I’m not a very good host, I suppose.”

“No!” That caught Erin off guard. “You’re not a bad host at all!”

“That’s very nice of you to say, but I’m profoundly useless in this situation. I can’t _help_ you.”

“That’s fine. You’re still miles better than my previous hosts. I’d much prefer you to another confused and scared and angry animal. I don’t want to hurt people anymore. I want to _help_. That’s all I _ever_ wanted. And...” Titania paused, before slowly pulling herself upright and looking Erin in the eye. “And I can help _you_.”

“I’m... not sure I follow.”

“That’s why I’ve given you my powers for so long. So you can maybe be happier with yourself. Even if it’s by being someone else.”

Erin bit her lip nervously. In the end, her whole life was nothing but escapism. Being someone other than Erin Leroux. She’d never really liked being Erin Leroux all that much, and Titania’s powers afforded her the opportunity to be someone else. A six foot tall bombshell bitch with big fuckin’ tits and an effortlessly cool attitude at all times. But... when she really thought about it, she didn’t really _like_ the persona she’d built for herself. She wasn’t so much effortlessly cool as she was a catty bitch. And, really, what exactly had it done for her? She was hot, yes, and people who didn’t know her tended to gravitate towards her for that reason alone.

And there was the kicker to the whole situation. People who _didn’t know her_. And once they _did_ know her they tended to gravitate _away_ unless she purposely kept them at arm’s length. She had a _pack_ , but their relationship had only really started functioning in the past few days as a sort of coping mechanism for all the shit going on. And, outside Ursula and the twins, she didn’t really have any friends short of a few online acquaintances. Because Erin Leroux, as she presented herself to the world, was kind of a bitch. “That someone else isn’t... the best person, though,” Erin said carefully.

“Then don’t be her.”

“Huh?”

“If you’re not being yourself then you can be anyone you want to be. And if you don’t like who you’re being then just stop being them.”

That... made a lot of sense, actually, now that Erin thought of it. Of course, she’d put on this persona for so long that it would likely be difficult to shake it off. She couldn’t just start being herself, because at this point there was very little difference between the Erin she was behind closed doors and the Erin she was around other people.

Of course, who said she had to be Erin. “Maybe I can start by trying to be more like you.”

It was Titania’s turn to be caught off guard by something Erin said. “Why would you want to be me?”

“I’ve spent an awful lot of my life hurting people,” Erin said simply. “Not physically, of course, but words can still hurt. Your philosophy of wanting to help people is... maybe exactly what I need, I think.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Erin shrugged. “We’ve got plenty of time to work it all out.”

“Not really.”

Erin winced. That was the _other_ kicker. Not exactly much point in spending time fixing her psychological issues when the end of the world was quite literally looming on the horizon – in more ways than one, even. “Well, um...” Once again, Erin struggled to find the right thing to say in this situation. “Maybe... it would be a good idea to assume the best possible outcome, instead of the worst.”

“I wish I could share your optimism,” Titania said quietly. “But you’re right. We’re not going to get anywhere by moping.”

“Exactly! It’s never good to dwell exclusively on how things can go wrong, even if there’s no chance of things going _right_.”

“I suppose so.”

“Right! In the meantime, I think the best course of action would be to go seek out the others. Assuming that’s possible. I know last night we, um, _encountered_ Vienna, so obviously our dreams can bleed into each other. The question is doing so on purpose.”

“It’s possible, yes. I’m no expert in navigating the dream realm, though.”

“Well, we can at least try. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I could tell you, but that would be counterproductive.”

“... Right, well. The point is that this way we can talk shop and also get some rest in at the same time.”

“Sounds like a plan then,” Titania said with a nod. “Shall we get going, then?”

Erin sighed with relief. She seemed to have diffused the situation, then. That was good. “Yes,” she said, smiling slightly. “Let’s.”

~~~~~~

“So, to be clear, this is your power?”

“Yes.”

Ursula stared at the tableau in front of her. A scene from the fight from earlier, frozen in time. Unlike her past nightmares, this was an accurate picture of the events, in full colour, rather than the inkling wireframe effect. Which made it much clearer what was going on and also hurt to look at significantly less.

“That would be the result of drawing directly from your prana reserves instead of trying to make do with the bare minimum. In layman’s terms, I can do better by working with you than on my own.”

“Why didn’t you do it sooner, then?”

“Because it requires drawing directly from your prana reserves. Which is bad because draw too much prana and the host dies.”

“Okay but counterpoint. Titania used up basically all of Erin’s prana and she was out of it for like a day but she’s not _dead_. The way you’re talking that should have _best case_ scenario left her comatose.”

“Technically it did. But... It seems as though humanity is almost _unusually_ adept at regenerating prana. Possibly intentionally engineered. Will have to investigate this ‘splice’ when given the chance.”

“Could you really see back that far?”

“I could go well beyond then. Want to see humanity at its peak? I can show you. Want to see what came _before_ humanity? I can show you. Though, of course, the farther back we look the longer it takes.”

“That’s good, ‘cos if you had a limit of a week then it’d be kinda bad for our plan to look back five hundred years.”

“It will take a while to get to that point.”

“We’ve got all night. Better to take things slowly now, while we can, because I kinda get the impression we’re not gonna be getting much more downtime.”

“We’re at roughly the halfway point of Ami’s five day deadline and have made very little progress, yes,” Delphi said with a solemn nod. “So we’ll have to pick up the pace.”

“Yep. First step towards that is gonna be figuring out what the fuck is going on. Which you’re kinda perfectly suited to, by the way, what was all that bullshit about your power not being useful in this situation?”

“I’m... not used to being a frontline fighter,” Delphi replied nervously. “Typically my hosts were much closer to Viola, while Fantoma would have a host closer to you.”

“Yeah, well, even if you’re in the team bruiser this time around, that doesn’t change the fact that you’ve still got basically the best intel gathering power I can think of. It’s not useful in the _middle_ of a fight, but maybe it’ll help us prepare for the next fight in advance.”

“I wish I could be more help _during_ the fighting.”

“Hey, superstrength is superstrength,” Ursula replied. Now that she and Delphi were actually making a concentrated effort to get along, it was a lot easier to see things objectively. “I just need to get better at _using_ it.”

“Perhaps. But that doesn’t change the fact that your skillset and mine don’t synergize well.”

“At least we’ve both got useful skillsets.”

“I suppose.”

“Anyway that’s enough talkin’. Come on, let’s turn back the clock and figure out what’s going on.”

“Well, first off I need a starting point. Scrubbing through local history at random will take far too long.”

“Hm, good point.” Ursula took a moment to think. She didn’t exactly have any more idea than Delphi what the best possible starting point might be, after all. That was kind of the problem. “Well... It’s gotta be pre-splice. Most likely, like, right around the same time as the splice.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, the soldiers are pre-splicers, right? And I think Ami specifically said she was pre-splice technology. But, like, they’re also _really_ advanced. Like, I don’t think _we_ could make an Ami today as far as I know. So it makes sense they’d be from the most advanced the pre-splicers got, right?”

“That makes sense,” Delphi said with a nod. “But it’s... still quite a large time period. We don’t know exactly when the splice was beyond ‘around five hundred years ago’, after all.”

“Okay. More specific. Gotcha.” Once again, Ursula wracked her brain to try and figure out literally anything more for them to go on. “Hm... Well, there was this one dream that kinda stands out.”

“Which one?”

“Like three or so nights ago, the one after when we got assigned community service.”

“I suppose I could take a closer look at that dream. Is there any reason it stands out, though?”

“I dunno,” Ursula said with a shrug. “Call it a hunch.”

“A hunch isn’t good enough,” Delphi said tersely, earning her a dirty look from Ursula. “... but it is, I suppose, better than nothing. Give me a moment and I’ll queue it up.”

There was that familiar distorted buzzing as the world around them dissolved into a vague blur. It hurt to listen to, but Ursula grit her teeth and powered through. She didn’t know for sure, but something about this felt like they were on the right track.

“How’s progress?” Once more, the world coalesced around her. Much clearer than it had been the first time she’d had this dream. They were in what seemed to be some sort of breakroom, with two pre-splice humans, a man and a woman, sitting together at a flimsy plastic table, drinking what was presumably coffee from large mugs.

“ _Agonizing_. I’m convinced they’re asking us to do the impossible.”

“It’s clearly not impossible. Doctor Nhilus managed just fine.”

“Yes, well, Doctor Nhilus is a freak of fucking nature. We’re just normal people, we can’t _do_ this in the timeframe they’ve given us.”

“You’re not normal people, you’re experts. I’m sure you can make it.”

“Well, how’s _your_ half going, then?”

The first pre-splice human grimaced silently.

“Yeah, I thought so.” The second pre-splice human slumped down in his chair, burying his face in his hands. “I heard they’re gonna kill off Cap’n Comet, by the way.”

“What?” The woman reeled backwards. “That’s not what I heard. They’re supposed to be just putting him into cryogenic stasis, not _killing_ him.”

“How far along are _you_ with that, then? Could _you guys_ keep him alive?”

“No.”

“My point exactly. It’s a death sentence, and it’s a death sentence that puts more pressure on _us_ because who’s gonna deal with all the supervillains Cap’n Comet’s spent the past decade or so keeping in check. Just because Nhilus is dead doesn’t mean there’s not gonna be others.”

“That’s what we’re here for.”

“Yeah and we’re one hundred percent not ready to take up the mantle! We’ve got like _four_ guys who are _sort of_ ready and Ami is barely _functional_ , let alone self aware.”

“There!” Ursula interjected as the scene before them came to an abrupt halt.

Delphi nodded. “Yes, it would seem you were right. Whoever these people are, they created Ami. And, likely, the four soldiers mentioned before are Ami’s minions.”

“Okay, cool, but we definitely need more information. Keep going, let’s see where this goes.”

The scene resumed with the woman burying her face in her hands. “It’s too much pressure. We need some kind of breakthrough.”

“I don’t think that’s in the cards at the rate we’re going.”

“Well,” the woman said resolutely. “We’re _definitely_ not making any progress sitting in the break room complaining. I’m gonna get back to work.”

“I’ll be with you in a minute, lemme finish my coffee. Oh, by the way, have you talked with Gen-”

That was about as far as the dream had gotten. Everything after this moment would be brand new. As if cued by this specific fact, the door to the break room burst open and a large, imposing looking man in some sort of uniform barged in, swearing loudly.

“Ah,” said the male scientist nervously. “We were just talking about you, General. I take it you’ve, um, heard the bad news?”

“You’re god damn _right_ I’ve heard the bad news. _Idiots!_ What the _hell_ are they _thinking?!_ ” The General stormed around the room, impotently kicking at nothing.

“I wish I could tell you.”

“He’s a _child_ and they’re all but executing him. And for what? Because they’re afraid that he might turn into another Nhilus?”

The woman scientist frowned. “Is that it?”

“That’s what I’ve been told. Some bullshit about him not having an equal.”

“That’s not a good reason to kill him off at all!”

“No,” said the General, collapsing into a chair, slumped over and dejected. “No, it’s not. But when I tried to _explain_ that they got testy over our lack of progress. We’re _decades_ away from anything even _resembling_ a functional replacement for Danger. Last I checked, Ami was still fixated on making dogs out of eyes, and our test subjects for cybernetic enhancement keep dying.”

“The latest volunteers are doing fine so far.”

“ _So far_.” The General slumped even further into his chair, which given his bulky build was almost comical in a depressing sort of way. “Did you know that my son idolized him? Cap’n Comet was his hero. God, I’ll never be able to look him in the eyes again.”

“It’s not your fault,” said the male scientist. “You did the best you could. The whole reason you’ve backed this project at all was to help him, right?”

“Yeah, well, fat lot of good _that_ did.”

“Creating an alternative method of dealing with supervillains is still a noble goal, sir. We just... can’t give up.”

“Right. You’re right.” The General pulled himself together, giving the two scientists a stern look. “You two get back to work. We’re accelerating the project. Overtime for everyone, minimum breaks. We need to get this _done_ as soon as possible, even if it takes us years. I’ll be in my office trying to talk sense into the higher ups if you need me.”

And with that, everyone left and the moment, such as it was, ended. “Okay. So. What have we learned?”

Delphi crossed her arms. “Ami was created as part of some sort of project to replace Captain Comet. But something went wrong, something that made people with more authority than the General decide that Captain Comet was a liability.”

“Right, The Hammer Falls.”

“What?”

“That was the name of the story arc where Cap’n Comet beat his arch rival Dr. Nhilus.”

“Oh. Yes, right, the comics. Can you give me any more details?”

“Nhilus was a super genius who made cool battle robots to fight Cap’n Comet and also made the weapons that Cap’n Comet’s other villains used. Eventually he built this big fuck-off space laser called The Hammer to destroy the world-”

“That sounds _profoundly_ counterproductive. Why on earth would anyone want to destroy the world if they _live there_.”

“He was also crazy.”

“I see. What kind of mental illness, though?”

“I dunno, he was just crazy. The _point_ is that Cap’n Comet beat him and destroyed the Hammer and saved the world. And I guess people figured that, without a super scientist giving people weapons, the only real remaining superhuman threat to the world was... Cap’n Comet himself.”

“Ungrateful,” Delphi spat. “After that, the project was accelerated. I can only guess what happened next, but it seems likely that it reached the stage that it’s at _now_ roughly at the same time as the skin plague outbreak. Everyone dies, project is scuttled and buried. World ends. And Ami is left alone with only the four most recent surviving test subjects for company.”

“Fuck. That sounds _miserable_.”

“It would explain much about Ami’s behaviour. She’s treating this situation like a game because... Well, because to her, it _is_ a game. Five hundred years alone with professional killers is likely not very good for your sanity.” Delphi nodded. “That answers most of our lingering questions, then. Ami is using the invasion as an excuse to get any other company aside from the soldiers without violating her programming.”

“Yeah.” Ursula frowned. “There’s still one thing I don’t get, though.”

“Hm?”

“Well... If Ami’s meant to be some kinda superhero... Why the nukes?”

It was Delphi’s turn to frown. “That’s... a very good question. One would assume that her programming in this situation would result in her sending the soldiers out to... Deal with Echelon and Osoth. Not to destroy the surface world.”

“There’s a lotta questions that we still need to answer before we’re done here.”

“It would appear so,” Delphi replied with a nod.

“Welp. Only one way to get those answers. At least we’ve got a starting point now?”

“It will take some doing. We know the general time period and location, yes, but it will take time to find relevant moments. Time we very well might not have.”

“Well,” Ursula said after a moment of thought. “Nothing for it but to just start scrubbin’ through history.”

“I suppose so,” Delphi said quietly. “Buckle up, because it’s going to be a very long night.”


	11. Act 11 - Rules of Engagement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is running out for Viola and her friends. Two days of Ami's game have passed and only three remain. The pressure is on, and the pace is picking up. And, beyond it all, the spectre of the Locksmouth Invasion looms large.
> 
> One way or another, the end is coming.

“Alright, everyone, settle down please. We’ve got a long day ahead of us.” Naturally, none of the students settled down. Mrs. Finch (who was, ironically, a titmouse) wasn’t a _bad_ teacher, but she’d always been a bit of a passive person and so sometimes she struggled with getting her class full of rambunctious eight year olds to behave themselves. “We’ve got a new classmate to introduce you all to today!” _That_ got everyone’s attention. Esterwood was a very _stagnant_ town, and though the children were too young to really understand that, they instinctively knew that a new person moving _to_ Esterwood wasn’t something that happened often. Suddenly, the entire class’s rapt attention was directed at their teacher, and at the small mousey stranger who was attempting to hide behind her. “Why don’t you introduce yourself?” Mrs. Finch said, gently pushing the girl out from behind her.

“U-um, okay,” she said softly. She didn’t really particularly _want_ to introduce herself. It had been... a while since she’d last really interacted with people her age. And even before that, she’d never been the most social child. But, well, she was going to _have_ to interact with all of these people at some point. She couldn’t just ignore them. And anyway she’d decided that she was going to turn over a new leaf on moving to Esterwood. And being a social recluse again was exactly the opposite of that. “I’m, um... I’m Erin. Erin Leroux. It’s nice to meet all of you.”

She’d hoped that it would feel better after she introduced herself. It didn’t. Everyone was staring at her and she hated it. She cringed into herself, desperately struggling not to have _another_ panic attack. This time it wasn’t breaking down at home at the prospect of having to confront other students, either, no, this would be _in front of_ her new classmates. She was getting off on a bad enough foot as it was by hiding behind the teacher without crying in front of everyone.

She tried her best to brush aside her shyness with some pragmatism. Attempting to learn the faces of her classmates, or at least those who stood out. There were several that popped out immediately. A canine of some sort, a doberman perhaps, who _towered_ over the other students by a good head’s worth. A feline, probably a lion, with ash coloured fur and the scruffy juvenile beginnings of a dark mane. A pair of rabbits – twins, by the looks of it, which already stood out enough, but in addition they had black and white fur in a perfect checkerboard pattern. An insect of some sort, perhaps a termite, who stood out mostly just by virtue of being an insect in a room full of mammals. There were others, but at that point they all started to blur together and Erin started to feel slightly nauseous.

“Why don’t you take a seat and we can get started?”

“Um, o-okay.” Erin immediately set her eyes on the back of the classroom, where there were the fewest other students.

“There’s an open spot by Justin,” Mrs. Finch interjected, drawing further swelling dread from Erin and a sullen grunt from the termite (apparently named Justin).

Erin reluctantly moved to take the vacant spot, in between Justin and the doberman. They were both fairly large (the dog significantly moreso) and Erin was decidedly not large, so she couldn’t help but feel intensely intimidated. Still, she _had_ resolved to turn over a new leaf. And part of that was going to involve getting along with all these new people. “Um. It’s nice to meet you. I hope we’ll get along?” she said quietly to Justin as she took her seat.

“Don’t talk to me, weirdo.” His response was _immediate_ and sharp, digging into Erin like a knife. The doberman growled quietly, making her opinion on the matter of friendship _abundantly_ clear.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“I said shut up, freak.”

Erin’s heart somehow managed to sink even further. So much for fitting in. Still, all wasn’t lost. Okay, yes, she was sandwiched between two people very obviously not interested in friendship, but that didn’t mean everyone else was the same. Surely, the vast majority of Esterwood’s community would be open and friendly to a new face such as her.

Surely.

~~~~~~

Of course, nothing was ever that simple. “We’re gonna make a couple of things clear. Here and now.”

“I-”

“Shut up.”

“sorry.”

Justin towered over her. Really, most of her classmates did – Erin was not a very large person at all. And, for an eight year old, Justin was _big_. More horizontally than vertically, but he was certainly not _short_ either. His body was shaped vaguely like a rectangle, big and bulky and about as buff as someone his age could possibly get. It didn’t help that he had her cornered. Every direction was occupied either by him, his arms, or a wall. “Weirdos like you don’t get to speak. Ever. Understood?” Erin nodded, desperately trying not to cry. “Answer me, freak.”

“I-”

“What part of weirdos don’t get to speak was so hard to grasp, freak.”

“But you said-” Erin found herself abruptly cut off as the termite grabbed her shirt and pushed her against the wall.

“I said shut up!” the larger boy snapped, probably a bit too loudly. “Are you _stupid_ as well as being a freak, freak?” Erin didn’t respond, of course. She _wasn’t_ an idiot, and she remembered what happened the last time she responded to Justin. Though, on the other hand, he seemed to be looking for excuses to get mad at her. “Are you _trying_ to piss me off, idiot?” Erin furiously shook her head, doing her best to non-verbally communicate that no she was not, really. “Well you’re doing a bad job!”

Erin cringed, desperately resisting her instinctive urge to apologize. She struggled to think of anything else she could do to diffuse the situation – and came to the horrifying realization that maybe there wasn’t _anything_ she could do. What had she done to deserve this? Say that it was nice to meet him? And in return he was probably going to beat her up.

Nausea welled up in the pit of her stomach. Unpleasantly familiar emotions washed over her. A sickening mixture of terror and indignation – how _dare_ he do this to her. How _dare_ he make her feel this way. It took all her willpower not to snap right then and there. She remembered the _last_ time she’d felt this way, and it had resulted in a year of Sensory Replacement Therapy. She _really_ didn’t want to have to go back into the Bullet, nor did she want to have to move. Again. But, well, maybe going back into the Bullet was for the best because clearly she wasn’t ready to be out of it yet, if literally the first day back at school she almost immediately had a panic attack and... Well, she didn’t want to think on the subject any further.

Thankfully, she found herself not _having_ to. “Hey, jerkface, let go of her!”

“What?” Justin said, turning to face the sudden interloper. “Mind your own business, Ursu-”

Whatever he was going to say was rudely interrupted by the doberman girl’s fist colliding with his face. He staggered backwards, letting go of Erin in order to clutch his own bleeding mouth, screaming and crying in pain. “Touch her again and I’ll punch you _harder_ ,” the taller girl said, punching her open palm for emphasis.

“What’s your problem?!”

“ _My_ problem? You’re the one who was harassing the new kid for no reason.”

“She was annoying me!”

“Yeah, well, your _face_ annoys me,” the dog said, taking an intimidating step towards him. “Every time you open it up, _stupid_ comes out. Maybe I should _deal_ with that by _punching it_ until it stops, what do you say?”

Justin winced and cowered away. “I’m sorry!” he blubbered, his voice muffled by his hands and his blood.

“Yeah, you’d better be. Now go see the nurse about your stupid bleeding face before I get mad and make it worse, butthead.” Justin didn’t need to be told twice, scampering off. The dog glowered at him before turning her attention to Erin. “You okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Erin shook her head, and then after a moment of intent staring from Ursula she said, “N-no. I’m fine.”

“Okay, good. C’mon, we should go talk to Dr Baas about this. Make sure she gets _our_ side of the story first or else we’ll get in trouble.”

“Oh. Okay.” Erin cringed slightly. “I don’t really want to get in trouble on my first day.”

“Well, _you_ probably won’t at least. I’m still probably gonna get yelled at for punching him in the face but enh, he deserved it.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault. He was being a butthead.” She rolled her eyes slightly. “Jerkhole did some tackletoss in Locksmouth over the summer, did really well and got a swelled head. Anyway, c’mon, let’s go talk to Dr. Baas.” The dog girl grabbed Erin’s hand and quickly led her off into the school building proper. “Oh, yeah, I’m Ursula, by the way. Nice to meet you!”

“It’s, um... It’s nice to meet you, too?”

~~~~~~

Unfortunately, Ursula turned out to have been correct about getting yelled at. Erin had done her best to defend her new friend(? She still wasn’t quite sure on that front), but had only _sort of_ managed to mitigate the storm that was Dr. Baas’s fury. It didn’t help that the woman was _enormous_ , towering over both girls by a fair margin. It was difficult for them to get a word in edgewise.

Eventually, though, the details of the situation got through to her and her demeanour softened. “Ursula, I understand you were trying to do the right thing, but you really shouldn’t have punched him in the face.”

“Sorry, ma’am.”

“You’re not in trouble this time – _this time_. But I want you to try using your _words_ in the future. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And if those don’t work, go find an adult.”

“What if there aren’t any adults nearby, though? I’m not just gonna let him hassle the new kid for no reason!”

“Well, you still really shouldn’t punch him in the face,” Dr. Baas said thoughtfully, before leaning in close and making a big show of whispering to the two girls. “But, given the right situation, I would be willing to turn a blind eye to a headlock and a good solid noogie. But only if he _really_ deserves it, understand?”

Ursula giggled slightly. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, girls, you can go back to recess. But just try not to get in any more trouble, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” both of them said in unison before quietly scuttling out of Dr. Baas’s office.

“She was scary...” Erin muttered. Even if it had _ended_ nice, Dr. Baas was still very much larger than her, and she’d spent _most_ of the conversation angry.

“She’s fine once you get to know her.”

“If you say so...”

“Trust me, teachers are all basically big pussycats. You just need to learn how to not get on their nerves and they’re _basically_ putty in your hands.”

“Says the girl who’s in and out of Dr. Baas’s office every other day.”

“I am not!”

Erin immediately slipped behind Ursula. More out of reflex than anything else, though immediately she realized that whoever it was probably wasn’t going to hurt her and anyway she didn’t actually know Ursula all that well yet. “Vienna! You scared her!” the larger girl admonished.

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” the new person (apparently named Vienna) said sheepishly. “It’s okay, a friend of Ursula’s is a friend of ours.”

Slowly, Erin poked her head out from behind Ursula. “Erin, these are the Coniglio twins. The loudmouth is Vienna, the quiet one hiding behind her is Viola.”

The twins were, it turned out, the checkerboard rabbits from before. “Hi,” Vienna said with a wave. Viola poked her head out from behind her sister with a quiet “‘lo,” in a strange and sort of amusing mirror of Erin and Ursula.

“Anyway, I _told_ you it’d be fine. You need to trust me more.”

“You still ended up in trouble.”

“I ended up getting yelled at, that’s not the same thing as being in trouble.”

“That’s what being in trouble _is_ , Ursula.”

“Nuh uh! I didn’t get punished!” Vienna rolled her eyes, but seemed eager to let the subject drop there. “Anyway!” Ursula said, turning to address Erin. “You should stick close to us for now. Jerkface Justin’s probably learned his lesson, but it’s better safe than sorry. And maybe someone else will try and start something. You’re new, so you’re kind of a big target for that kinda thing.”

“I am?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Vienna said. “We’ve lived here all our lives so we already _know_ who the butts are, but you don’t.”

“Oh!” Ursula interjected, her eyes widening slightly. “Why don’t you join our pack?”

“Huh?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Vienna said with a nod. “You seem nice enough and Ursula scares off all the bullies. What do you think, Viola?” The other rabbit nodded in silent agreement, staring intently at Erin.

“I guess it’s unanimous then! Welcome to the pack, I guess. Uh, if you’re okay with it, that is. We kinda only just met after all.” Ursula rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

Erin took a moment to think. She _had_ just met them, as Ursula said. And... Well, the doberman was kind of big and scary. But she was also _nice_. These three were the only people her age who had been even _sort of_ nice to her since... Well, since _ever_. She’d always been something of an outsider. She hadn’t really had any friends _before_ her incident, and if she passed this opportunity up Esterwood would likely be more of the same.

Besides which, Vienna was right. Ursula was big and scary and no one would mess with her, so if she stuck by Ursula then she also wouldn’t be messed with.

She nodded slowly, her decision made. “Okay.”

Ursula frowned as the flashback paused. “This is a waste of time.”

“I don’t see it that way,” Delphi said with a shrug. “It’s more productive than trying to locate the Splice. We have much less history to scrub through.”

“We’ve been at it for hours and we’ve not found anything yet.”

“We can fast forward a bit,” Delphi replied. “But I’m _certain_ that our arrival on earth _must_ have occurred sometime around this point. Likely on this specific day.”

“If you say so,” Ursula said, though she didn’t sound entirely convinced.  
  


Delphi, if she noticed that lack of confidence at all, did not acknowledge it. She held up her right hand, and the flashback started up again. “Now, let’s speed things up.” She made a grasping motion and slowly twisted her hand to the right like she was turning an invisible dial. And, as she did so, the flashback sped up. Like watching a movie at two times speed, and then four times speed. The rest of the school day went by _just_ fast enough for them to still be able to register what was happening.

“Hold on, stop,” Ursula interjected. At her command, the flashback once again paused. The four girls were in a group, heading towards the outskirts of Esterwood. “Yeah, I don’t remember this. That’s probably a sign that this is important.”

“Understood. Let’s watch this play out.”

“Okay so why are we here again?” the flashback Ursula grumbled loudly. “This place is totally haunted.”

“Viola says it isn’t,” Vienna replied. Viola nodded vigorously.

“Can she not speak for herself?” Erin interjected curiously.

“O-oh, um...” Viola stuttered, blushing slightly.

“She’s just shy around new folks, don’t worry,” Ursula said with a lackadaisical shrug. “Just give her some time to get used to you.”

“She likes you, don’t worry,” Vienna added, accompanied by more vigorous nodding from Viola.

“O-oh. Well, she seems nice, I guess,” Erin said, trying to be diplomatic. Meeting someone so much shier than her was a surreal experience. “Anyway, um, what’s this about this place being haunted?” Viola frowned.

“There’s an old empty pre-splice shack and if you go in it a flicker calls you up and then eats your face or something,” Ursula said. “So actually now that I think about it even if it _is_ real-”

“Which it’s not,” Vienna interjected sternly, accompanied by a resolute nod from her twin.

“But if it _is_ ,” Ursula continued, mildly exasperated. “If it _is_ real, all you have to do is not go into any creepy shacks you find in the forest. Boom. Easy. No ghosts, no problems.”

“We should still probably not go too deep though,” Vienna said. “If we trip and get hurt there’s not gonna be any adults around.”

“Maybe we should call our parents...” Erin said nervously.

“It’ll be fine, we’re just going outside the dome for a little bit.”

“That seems like the kind of thing our parents should know about.”

“There’s an emergency exit near the edge of the Woods, we can just hang out there and watch the meteor shower then get back in.”

“Yeah but there’s gotta be _less haunted_ emergency exits, right?”

“Maybe, but this is the only emergency exit that’s not constantly watched.”

“Okay fair. I still don’t like it but I’m gonna do it anyway.” Ursula shrugged. “Someone’s gotta keep you idiots safe.”

“Why can’t we watch it from inside the dome?” Erin asked.

“Oh, right you’re new. It’s be overcast all week,” Vienna grumped. “I complained about it at the town meet but no one listened and so the weather schedule is dumb.”

“Pause. I think I remember this, sort of.”

“Oh?” Delphi said as the scene once again froze solid.

“Like... I still don’t _remember_ this. But I remember this _happening_ , if that makes sense. We went out of the dome to watch a meteor shower and then we all got in trouble when we came back because we were idiot children and didn’t tell anyone we’d gone.”

“Sort of like now, then.”

“Literally _exactly_ like now except without the cyborgs and aliens and shit.” Ursula frowned slightly. “I can’t even get mad at you for bein’ snide about it ‘cos you’re right.”

“I always am.” Delphi sighed. “Hypothesis; meteor struck nearby where you were watching. Possibly nearly right on top of you. We were on it. Bonded with you here as you were nearest available hosts and the arrival was traumatic, as predicted. Explains selective amnesia. Will have to watch further.”

“If you’re right we can just fast forward to the meteor shower.”

Delphi nodded, turning the invisible knob to the right. The tableau returned to motion, and then sped up until the children got out of the dome. The meteor shower happened, its majesty somewhat robbed as a result of being sped up, and sure enough one of the meteors landed mere _feet_ away from where they were watching. The children dove away in a panic, as children were wont to do when a space rock landed practically on top of them.

“There we go. Look, you can see us leaving the meteor.” The hostless inklings looked sort of like giant slugs made out of... well, ink.

“I thought you guys couldn’t live without hosts?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but we don’t have the time for a more detailed explanation so just assume that we can’t. Not outside of very specific situations.”

“And I guess being inside of a space rock is one of those situations?”

“The short answer is yes.”

“I’ll accept that.”

“I think we’ve seen enough,” Delphi said, raising her arm and dismissing the flashback. “What have we learned?”

“Literally nothing that we didn’t already know.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Delphi said. “I think we learned rather a lot, actually.”

“Like what?”

“For starters, we learned the _exact_ timeframe when we first bonded with you. Ten years, almost exactly. A nice round number.”

“We knew that already though.”

“We also learned that you girls get along significantly better than you let on.”

“Wh-no we didn’t!”

Delphi smirked. “There was definite chemistry there. And _you_ certainly seemed eager to bring Erin into the pack.”

“Y-yeah, well... I don’t see it. And I don’t see how it’s relevant to the current situation.”

Delphi sighed, pinching the bridge of her snout. “Listen,” she said tersely. “If we wish to survive this, you and your friends are going to have to put aside the petty bullshit and focus on working as a team.”

“Yeah, we _know_ that, but-”

“But nothing! You _clearly_ used to get along very adequately, but years and years of mounting tensions have since spoiled that. You’ve done a good enough job of putting those tensions aside for now, but you’re going to need to _keep_ them put aside unless you wish to die.” Ursula frowned slightly, but said nothing. “Ami is unpredictable and dangerous, and her soldiers are moreso. And once we’re done here, there’s Echelon and Osoth still looming on the horizon. If you all cannot keep working together, one or both of them will kill you and us alike. And that is _unacceptable_.”

“Okay, okay, fine, point taken. Don’t backslide into bad habits. Got it.” Ursula sighed. “You’re right.”

“Like I said, I always am.”

“Anyway, how much time do we got left before we gotta wake up?”

“Likely very little. Not enough to do anything productive.”

“Can we try and look into what’s going on in Locksmouth?”

Delphi shook her head. “Too far away, too broad an area.”

“Ah, well, that actually makes sense. Was worth a try, though.” Ursula sighed. “I guess... It’s probably best to just wake up, then? Can I even do that?”

“... No obviously you’re going to be asleep forever.”

“Oi, no sarcasm, I dunno how this weird dream bullshit works.”

“Think of this as another benefit of being inked – guaranteed lucid dreams. You can basically do whatever you can imagine while in this state, up to and including waking up. You can just... _do it_.”

“Okay. I guess.” Ursula shrugged, closing her eyes and then opening them again in the waking world. “Huh. That was easy.” Ursula attempted to get up, only to find herself at the bottom of a pack pile. Somehow. She could have sworn Erin had been at the bottom when she’d gone to sleep and yet here she was, buried completely by big fat rodent tit. “Fuck. Wake up!” she shouted, pulling herself upright. The other girls awkwardly sloughed off of her in a heap, waking up as a direct result.

“Hey!”

“Ow!”

“What?”

Ursula looked down at the undignified pile. “Come on, guys, rise and shine. Grab a protein bar, we’re burnin’ daylight.”

“ _Ughhhhhhh_.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Mnef.”

Ursula sighed. It was going to be a very, _very_ long day.

~~~~~~

It turned out that sleeping in a large unorganized post-foursome pile had been a terrible idea. Vienna _ached_ all over. Other people, it seemed, did not make for the best mattresses. “So,” she said, still a bit groggy. “What’s the plan?”

“There _is_ no plan,” Erin replied.

“We don’t really have any choice but to pick a direction and walk,” Ursula added reluctantly. “At this point Ami’s basically completely in control. I can’t think of anything to do but just... keep playing the game. Walk until something happens, deal with it, move on and repeat.”

“It’s clear at this point that none of this is real. Or at least, none of our surroundings. Possibly some sort of creative combination between strong-force containment fields and holograms, maybe? Or possibly some sort of hard-light projections.” Erin rubbed her temples, her head still pounding from the pointed lack of water they’d all had to deal with for the past few days. That was yet another thing they’d not thought through when planning this. “The point is, clearly none of this city is actually physically _there_. It’s just... smoke and mirrors.”

Vienna groaned. “Which means that there is no goal until Ami decides that she’s done with us.”

“Exactly.”

“We’re gonna hafta pace ourselves carefully,” Ursula said. “Ami’s prolly gonna drag the game out as long as possible, which means we’ve gotta last three more days. Luckily I don’t think Ami wants us to starve to death so I don’t think she’ll throw anything we couldn’t handle with proper nutrition? But we’ve still only got so much food and only so much water. Which is none. None water.”

“Shit,” Vienna said. “That’s a big problem.”

“The soldiers had water,” Viola interjected, only to immediately shrink away when everyone turned their attention to her. “U-um. They gave me some. I don’t have it anymore, but they had to get it from somewhere?”

“That’s our next goal, then,” Ursula said. “It’s... not much more than what we had, but it’s something.”

Vienna sighed. “Walking in a random direction with a goal is better than walking in a random direction with no goal.”

“I guess...” Viola frowned.

“And if we see any chance to circumvent the bullshit, we should take it,” Ursula continued, though she didn’t sound particularly convinced that was going to be an option.

“Well, we’re not going to make any progress one way or the other if we just stand around here, darlings.”

“Yeah... Yeah.” With that, there wasn’t anything else to say. Erin grabbed the backpack and the girls left. Ursula took the lead, followed closely by Erin, with the twins taking up the rear.

“ _You should probably be a bit closer to the middle._ ”

“Huh?”

“ _Let’s stick to the Thing for now. I kinda want a private conversation._ ”

“‘ _Kay._ ”

Vienna grabbed Viola’s hand and squeezed. “ _We don’t want Ami or her goons grabbing you again while we’re not paying attention. You’re kind of the easiest target._ ”

Viola frowned. “ _I’ve got superpowers too, you know._ ”

“ _Yeah. Still,_ _they’ll probably go after you first so_ _better safe than sorry._ _I don’t want to lose you again._ ”

“ _I managed to get away from Ami’s goons before._ ”

“ _Yeah, because Ami made them let you go_.”

Viola’s frown deepened. “ _I still managed to get away from Makoto._ ”

“ _That was mostly Aubrey, wasn’t it?_ ”

“ _So? It’s not like she’s not still with me._ ”

“ _Viola, just because your inkling managed to get you out of trouble with some clever on-the-spot thinking once doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to do it again_.” It was Vienna’s turn to frown slightly. “ _That trick’s not going to work twice and you ended up passing out immediately after you realized it was even a trick_.”

“ _I can take care of myself._ ”

“ _You clearly can’t. Just because your inkling is good at coming up with plans and outthinking the enemy doesn’t mean_ you _are._ ”

“ _Yes it does! It’s like A_ _ubrey_ _said, inklings and hosts become more alike the longer they’re bonded and we’ve been bonded for a decade_.”

“ _Viola, I just want you to be careful. That’s all_.” She sighed. “ _No matter what you say, you’re the easiest target out of all of us and that means if they_ do _attack they’re gonna go after you first._ ”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Viola snapped, yanking her hand free of Vienna’s grip.

“Wha-hey!”

“Look, there, I’m in the middle of the stupid group so you can protect me because I’m a big dumb idiot who can’t take care of herself!”

“Viola, you’re not being fair.”

“I’m not being fair? _I’m_ not being fair?!”

“This is an _actual life or death situation_ , and I _really_ don’t want you to die.”

“I’m _not going to_ die! I managed to survive when they captured me, didn’t I?”

“Viola-”

“Guys,” Ursula interjected. “It’s been _literally two days_ since you promised not to do the Thing when we’re around. I’d _really_ like to not get dumped into the middle of a heated argument at the drop of a fucking hat?”

“Sorry,” both girls muttered in sullen unison.

“Anyway, Inklings make you super durable and super strong, remember? Viola can prolly handle herself well enough when Ami attacks us again, and worse comes to worse she can just fucking _turn invisible and hide_. It’s _fine_.”

“I _know_ all that, It’s just...” Vienna’s body drooped slightly from the weight of the argument. “I just don’t want her to make herself an easy target. That’s all.”

“That’s not an unfair point,” Erin said, her tone of voice as diplomatic as she was capable of. “Actually, it’s probably best that we _all_ endeavour to not make easy targets of ourselves. Even Ursula didn’t stand a chance in either of our previous encounters with Ami’s soldiers.”

“Ugh, you’re right.” Ursula frowned. “If they catch us off guard we’re fucked.”

“If I may make a suggestion,” Aubrey interjected from a nearby window. “It sounds like the best course of action would be to remain on guard at all times.”

“Brilliant, everything’s solved.”

“What I _mean_ is that we should Ink. More specifically, Ursula is a priority target because she’s the biggest physical threat and Viola is a priority target for the opposite reasons. And coincidentally Delphi and myself also both don’t require very much prana in combat, so we can likely afford to remain Inked at all times.”

“That’s a _terrible_ plan,” Delphi interjected.

“Can you think of a better one?”

“I didn’t say that we shouldn’t do it,” the taller inkling responded tersely. “Merely imply that we should be judicious about our use of prana, for the sake of the long-term. That’s all.”

“I’m okay with it on one condition,” Ursula said.

“You don’t _get_ to make conditions, Host.”

“ _One condition_.”

“Ugh.”

“We get to be in control. No hijacking our bodies unless absolutely positively no-way-to-avoid-it necessary. Got it?”

“Fine. I wouldn’t be much use in a fight anyway.”

Aubrey frowned, clearly not pleased with the condition. “If I deem Viola to be in danger without my intervention, I _will_ intervene.”

“Literally _exactly_ what I meant when I said absolutely positively no-way-to-avoid-it necessary.”

“Very well. Viola, I’m coming out.” Viola grumbled sullenly in response as Aubrey’s ink quickly encompassed her body.

“One problem,” Delphi said as she overtook Ursula. “If Aubrey and I are out, that makes Erin and Vienna the weak links.”

“Yeah, fair. Buddy system, then. Erin, you stick close to me. Vienna, stick close to Viola. And _no more fucking telepathic bickering_ , understand? We need to get along right now or we _actually_ might die.”

“I can handle myself just fine.”

“Vienna for _fuck’s sake_ , what did I just say?”

Vienna bit her lip and Viola frowned deeply.

“Okay, fine, fuck it. Reverse that. Erin stick with Viola, Vienna stick with me. Are you happy now? Or are you guys still gonna keep bitching?”

“Whatever,” Viola snapped, storming forward.

“Ah! Darling, wait!” Erin said as she ran off after.

Vienna frowned for a moment longer, before letting out a slow sigh and letting her body hang as limply as it could without falling down. “... I think I might have fucked up.”

“Little bit,” Ursula replied. “You weren’t _wrong_ , per se.”

“No, but I think I _was_ kind of an asshole.”

“Yeah pretty much. You should go apologize.”

“Let’s give her some time to cool off, first,” Vienna said after a moment’s thought. “And me, too, I guess. Otherwise we’ll probably both just end up having the same argument again.”

“I don’t know if we _have_ time for y’all to cool off,” Ursula said, voice tinged with worry.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” With that, the conversation once again ended, and the two girls rushed to catch up with the other half of their pack.

They had a long day ahead of them, after all.

~~~~~~

It was difficult to keep track of time in Ami’s domain. There weren’t any _real_ landmarks to go by. The sun in the sky wasn’t real, and so the sun’s position was arbitrary. There weren’t any _people_ around, so they couldn’t determine it was lunchtime because lots of people were heading to restaurants or anything like that. And the only clocks they had were built into their PETs, which meant that their PETs were the only real means of determining the passage of time.

And so it was somewhat understandable that they lost track of time. “My feet hurt,” Erin muttered, breaking the awkward silent.

“It’s been like an _hour_ of straight walking. I’m surprised you can _feel_ your feet because _I_ sure can’t.”

“I feel fine,” Ursula said with a shrug. “But that’s prolly got something to do with being Inked. What about you, Viola?”

“I could keep going,” Viola said. “But, um. I don’t like this. It’s too quiet.”

“Don’t say anything, darling. The _last_ time we complained it was too quiet Ami made me fight a giant elephant man. I would rather not have to do that again.”

“I, uh, think it might be a bit too late for that,” Vienna interjected. “Look.”

The road ahead opened up into an enormous plaza, the size of several tackletoss fields placed back to back. In the centre of the open space stood a large, roughly circular building. “Oh, a colosseum.” Erin seemed almost nonplussed. “Or possibly _the_ Colosseum. Or a recreation thereof.”

“A what now.”

“It was a large amphitheatre in ancient Rome. It was used for large-scale public entertainment.”

“Like sports?” Ursula stared up at it. “It kinda looks like a tackletoss arena.”

“Mostly bloodsports. Gladiatorial combat, fights with wild animals, executions, chariot races.”

“Races aren’t usually bloodsports.”

“A good way to win a race is to ensure none of your opponents survive.”

“Usually that’s _pretty specifically_ against the rules.”

“In some subtypes they would even arm participants. Put blades on their wheels to attack the opponent’s chariots, or place weapons on the course for racers to use against each other.”

“That’s kinda messed up,” Vienna said with a sour look on her face.

“It was also used for recreations of famous battles and for putting on plays. Generally the same sort of thing we use modern amphitheatres for, just... a bit more violent. Mother has a longstanding fascination with the original.” Erin sighed wistfully. “She would be _thrilled_ at the merest suggestion of a recreation of it being right under her feet.”

“To be fair, it’s probably not _normally_ here,” Ursula said. “Hm. What do you think would happen if we just, like, turned around and left?”

“I imagine we would find another identical colosseum behind us,” Erin said, thinking back to the mountain.

“Yeah okay fair. Come on, let’s go see what we’re gonna hafta punch this time.”

There were several large archways that seemed to lead into the structure. Ursula led the way into the nearest one, with the others close behind her. The archway led into a large stone lobby that formed a circle around the outside of the building, solely lit by the arches that acted as entryways. Deeper in, there were some smouldering sconces, and in the absence of other directions to go in, Ursula led the group towards them. The air was cold and wet and _heavy_. As they got deeper in the tunnel, the sconces quickly became the only source of light or warmth. “I don’t like this,” Ursula muttered to herself.

“It kinda reminds me of the labyrinth.”

“If we have to fight another fucking bull man I’m going to scream.”

“I thought this was a sports arena?” Viola said, nervously shrinking into herself.

“The Colosseum was more about spectacle than sportsmanship,” Erin replied. “There were extensive networks of tunnels underneath the arena, and all kinds of mechanisms for transporting people and animals from the tunnels to the arena or for facilitating special effects. It was actually quite technologically advanced for the time. Apparently they could even flood it and host full-scale naval battles, though the infrastructure that let them do that got removed later on to make room for other things.”

“Yo that actually sounds fucking rad. Maybe your mom’s onto something here.”

“Yes, well, as I understand it it’s _your_ mother who is the biggest obstacle to building one.”

“Lame.”

“I feel like I can see where she’s coming from in not wanting Esterwood to play host to bloodsports, to be fair.”

“Okay, _yes_ , but who says they hafta be bloodsports? We’ve got inertial dampeners and we’ve got special effects. It could be like pro wrestling in Anchorsway but way cooler.”

“Okay but back on _topic_ ,” Vienna interjected. “Does anyone know where the thing we’re eventually gonna get made to fight is?”

“Nope.”

“Great.” Vienna frowned deeply. “I don’t like not knowing what we’re gonna be up against, and I _really_ don’t like Ami making us wait until the other shoe drops.”

“Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend. Ami is in control of the pacing and we’re just along for the ride.”

“Ugh.”

“Well we’re not gonna make any progress just standing here talking about how Ami’s got an overdeveloped sense of dramatic timing. We should at least _try_ to be proactive. Even if it’s probably pointless.”

“I guess it’s better than sitting around doing nothing,” Vienna said with a sigh.

“Erin said there’s elevators. We should find one of those.” Everyone turned to look at Viola when she spoke up, and she cringed into herself slightly. “I mean... Whatever she’s going to make us fight will probably be in the arena proper, right? And not under it.”

“That... makes a lot of sense, actually. Erin, this is your mom’s area of expertise, right? Think you could find an elevator?”

“I believe so, yes. I don’t know the layout by heart, but it’s not exactly complicated. I should be able to figure out where the elevators are.”

“Okay that’s the plan, then. Erin, lead the way.”

The other girls stuck close to Erin. It went unsaid, but none of them particularly relished the idea of getting separated in the guts of the Colosseum, especially considering the very real possibility of Ami deciding to throw something at them down here after all or of the soldiers attempting to kidnap one of them again. The oppressive atmosphere Ami had created didn’t help. The air was tinged with the aroma of wet stone, of ash and sulphur from the smouldering sconces, and of the dirt pathways under their feet. The paths, thankfully, were indeed fairly straightforward. There were branches, but Erin did not take them. Instead they went straight ahead, no deviations and therefore no chances to get lost.

Eventually they reached what could only be the end of the path. There was a large cage-like structure made of wood, large enough for all four of them to fit inside. There were several ropes attached to the top, each thicker around than Ursula’s arms. In front of it was a large, ornate metal lever set into the ground, and on the floor inside there was a large button. “Here we are, I assume,” Erin said uncertainly as they made their way inside what was probably an elevator. Once everyone was inside, Ursula carefully stepped on the button. A large wooden bar dropped, blocking the entrance, and then the elevator began to rise. There was a creaking from the ropes that held their weight, and the sound of stone grinding against stone as gears turned and lifted them up, up, up to the arena.

The arena was smaller than it looked from the outside. About the size of a Tackletoss arena, maybe slightly smaller. Much of the space was dedicated to the stands, which were packed with vague indistinct shapes that presumably represented an audience. Loud, triumphant music played from seemingly nowhere, accompanied by colourful banners unfurling from the stands.

What really stood out, though, was the boxing ring in the centre of the arena. And the man who was standing in the middle. He was, as was becoming distressingly common, a pre-splicer. Taller than Ursula, with broad shoulders and a broad chest that had a purple cape draped over them. The instant they stepped out of the elevator, he tossed the cape aside dramatically, revealing chiselled muscles and glistening skin, clad only in a pair of loose-fitting boxers and shoes.

And, most pointedly, boxing gloves. Vienna grimaced slightly. “Hey, Ursula, look. It’s your element.”

“Hell fucking yes it is.”

“What are you two talking about?”

“You had ta’ be there,” Ursula replied, cracking her knuckles as she de-inked. She strode confidently towards the ring – which was a good distance away, given its relatively small size in comparison to the field. She climbed up through the ropes and walked into the nearest corner.

“Queensbury rules,” the man said tersely, his voice low and rumbling, tinged with an accent somewhat like Erin’s but not _quite_.

“Yeah, I figured.” Ursula bent down and began to undo her boots.

“Leave them on.”

“You sure?”

“Rule eleven; no shoes or boots with spikes or sprigs will be allowed. I see neither, thus yours are legal. And it wouldn’t be fair for you to go barefoot while I am not.”

“Gotcha.” Ursula quickly redid her laces before transitioning to some quick warmup stretches. “I don’t got any gloves on me. That’s rule... ssssseven?”

“Eight. I can provide some for you, as per rule nine.”

“So you’re the ref, then? That seems like a conflict of interest.”

“You seem familiar enough with me to know it is not.”

“Yeah, okay.”

The man held a gloved hand out and a pair of boxing gloves materialized out of thin air. He tossed them in Ursula’s general direction, followed shortly by a set of handwraps. “Ah. Shit. Laces.”

“Will that be a problem?”

“No, no, I can figure it out probably. I’m just used to threadlink gloves that do all that stuff automatically.”

“I can assist you in putting them on, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, sure, that’d be fine.”

“Host, I have to _strongly_ object to allowing that man anywhere near us while our guard is down,” Delphi interjected. The man, whoever it was, didn’t react at all for obvious reasons.

“It’s fine. This guy’s a stickler for rules.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Alien living in my brain.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Th- Okay, firstly, that is an _incredibly_ reductive and inaccurate way of putting it and _secondly_ who even _is_ this person?”

“Cap’n Comet villain. Went by Marquess of Queensbury. Former pro boxer. Super hardcore stickler for rules and fair play.”

“A victory in the ring is meaningless if it is not obtained fairly.”

“I see. So we can expect him to _not_ sucker punch us in the face while we’re not prepared, then?”

“Not while we’re in the ring at least.”

“That isn’t particularly reassuring, host.”

“Yeah, well, I can’t put these on without help and he’s the only guy here who knows how.”

“Yes, well. I still don’t like it.”

“He’s _not_ gonna cheat,” Ursula reiterated. “And if he _does_ then Ami’s done a shitty job of recreating him so I’ll consider it a moral victory.”

“I would really rather an actual real victory if that’s alright with you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m gonna need to concentrate if that’s gonna happen.”

“Duly noted. I’ll keep quiet unless necessary.”

After Ursula put on the handwraps, the Marquess quickly tested them to make sure they weren’t too tight before putting on her gloves and efficiently tying them. Once they were on to his satisfaction, he nodded before getting up and returning to his corner. “As per rule three, rounds are three minutes with one minute between.”

“Okay. How many rounds?”

“Hrm.” The Marquess sized Ursula up, carefully examining her with his eyes. “You certainly seem strong, but you’re an amateur. Six should suffice. If you cannot beat me by then, I doubt you would be able to beat me at all.”

Ursula frowned slightly. “I ain’t no amateur.”

“So you are a professional fighter, then?”

“Well... _no_ , but-”

“Then you are an amateur by definition. How many matches have you had?”

Ursula’s frown deepened. She wasn’t _inexperienced_ with fighting, and most of her matches she had _won_. But... Well, most of her matches had been practice bouts against other students and occasionally against her father – who had pretty clearly gone easy on her. Esterwood wasn’t exactly a big player in school sports, so the only real opponent she’d ever gone up against was Maggie.

She had not ever actually won against Maggie.

“Fine. Six rounds it is.”

“Ursula,” Delphi interjected, voice tinged with uncharacteristic worry. “That’s a lot of fighting.”

“It’s not that much.”

“Six rounds of three minutes each is eighteen minutes, host.”

“Exactly! That’s not even a full episode of a TV show, even if you count the breaks between rounds.”

“Ursula, we have less than three days left. If you get taken out of commission _now_ -”

“He’s not going to kill me.”

“No, but the losing condition is getting _beaten into unconsciousness_. Forgive me if I’m a little worried.”

“I can beat him.”

“At least Ink up.”

“Abso-fucking- _lutely_ not.”

“Wh- why not?!”

“Rule... Six, I think? No outside help.”

“Ursula, literally billions of lives are on the line, it is _not_ the time to be a stickler for the rules.”

“ _I can beat him_.”

“That is enough conversation,” the Marquess interjected. “Round one begins when the bell rings.”

“Ursula, just... Be careful, okay? If you die, I am _also_ as good as dead.”

“I’m not gonna die.” Ursula walked to the centre of the ring, raising her fists into a fighting stance. She put her right foot forward and turned her left foot perpendicular.

“Southpaw. Are you left handed?” Ursula didn’t respond, and after a moment the Marquess took up his own position in the centre of the ring, leading with his left. “Are you ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

“Then let’s begin.”

The bell rang and Ursula immediately began her offensive, only to be faced with an unforeseen complication. Post-splice boxing was a very different sport from what she understood of the pre-splice equivalent. Scoring knockouts, while still very much a thing, was generally much rarer. Matches were much more commonly decided by points. And, most relevantly, typically both fighters would be using inertial dampeners.

Right now she was _not_ using her inertial dampener. Which, on the one hand, allowed her to hit significantly harder with significantly less effort on her part. The _problem_ was that she was _extremely_ used to compensating for the inertial dampening field’s presence and so she did that. But because the field _wasn’t_ there, that compensation led to her stumbling forward. Her fist collided with the Marquess, but with much less power than she had intended, and she was left completely open to his counterattack. A solid right hook directly to her side, knocking her back and to the side. “Oof!”

“Sloppy.”

“I ain’t fuckin’ up again.”

“See that you don’t. I would rather this not be over _too_ quickly.”

“It won’t be.”

Ursula took the exchange as an opportunity to back off slightly and regain her bearings. Stumbling like that had been an amateur mistake, one she frankly shouldn’t have made. One she _hadn’t_ made in earlier fights. It wasn’t that she couldn’t _fight_ without her inertial dampener on, but she’d never had to _box_ without it. That didn’t _excuse_ the mistake, though. If anything it made it sting all the more. If she could _fight_ without overcompensating due to the lack of dampeners, she could _box_ in the same situation.

Fortunately, she didn’t find herself with much time to dwell on the mistake. The round was still going, and the Marquess wasn’t going to give her downtime until the three minutes was up. _Un_ fortunately, Ursula’s mistake had cost her the offensive. The Marquess pushed, and she could only react. He threw a series of alternating left and right jabs. Not hard to dodge, but he was clearly not trying to _hit_ her with them. With each punch thrown, he took a step forward and in turn her dodging pushed her a step _back_. Which was a problem because there was only so much back for her to be pushed. Once they hit the ropes, she was at his mercy.

Of course, that was assuming she kept dodging backwards. There weren’t many openings left by his quick jabs, but the steady rhythm meant there _were_ openings. She just had to _catch_ one before she ran out of ring. Left right left right left right _now_. She ducked and darted forward and to the left, breaking out of his push and reversing their positions – now _he_ was the one with his back to the ropes and she was the one pushing forward.

Or at least that had been the goal. What _actually_ happened was she dodged _directly_ into a right hook to her face. Once again, she found herself stumbling backwards, stunned and defenceless. “Ursula! Your left!” Delphi’s warning came just slightly too late – the Marquess took the opportunity Ursula being stunned afforded him to put a significant amount of weight behind a right uppercut. She made a futile attempt to backstep out of range, but still ended up taking most of the blow to her chin. “Ursula, you need to Ink up.”

“Shut up.”

“You will _die_ you idiot child.”

“Shut _up_.”

“I did not say anything,” the Marquess said, backing off briefly.

“I wasn’t fucking talking to you!” Ursula snapped, temper officially lost. She took a step forward, throwing a wild left haymaker that the Marquess easily intercepted, countering with a left hook directly to Ursula’s solar plexus. The force of the punch knocked the wind out of her lungs, leaving her terrifyingly incapable of breathing and hunched over. Once again, the Marquess didn’t give her time to recover, pulling back before throwing another heavy right uppercut. This time Ursula didn’t manage to dodge at all, taking the hit directly to the chin. She stumbled backwards, clutching limply to the ropes and desperately gasping for breath.

“One.”

“Ursula, you’re bleeding. You can barely breathe. You are getting completely dominated. You have landed _one single punch_.”

“Two.”

“ _Ink up_.”

“No.”

“Three.”

“Ursula it’s not even been two minutes and you can barely stand. You aren’t going to last _one_ round without my help, let alone _six_.”

“Fuck off.”

“Four.”

Ursula desperately pulled herself upright – but not _too_ desperately. She would only lose if she was down for the ten count, after all. Which meant she had until nine to catch her breath and pull herself upright. Not exactly _much_ time, but it was better than no time at all, and the Marquess seemed to be counting slowly intentionally. “Five.”

“Ursula, your dedication to the rules would be admirable in a real boxing match, but this isn’t a real boxing match. Your opponent is a hologram. It’s okay for you to fight dirty if it means not burning yourself out completely on an inconsequential fight.”

“Six.”

“I’m not cheating,” Ursula grumbled, taking a moment to look at her pack. Both Erin and Vienna were pointedly looking away, the former crossing her arms under her boobs while the latter bit her lip nervously. Viola seemed practically on the verge of tears, hands covering her mouth in shock.

“Seven.”

“I’m winnin’ this fight. Or I’m gonna die trying.”

“ _Ursula._ ”

“Don’t _say_ that!” Viola practically screamed.

“It’s a figure of speech, geeze. I ain’t gonna die. Just gotta last another minute, then I can recover and take back momentum without fuckin’ up.”

“Ursula, _ink up_.”

“Y’all heard the man. If I can’t win fairly, I can’t win.” Ursula finished pulling herself upright, ready to spring into action. “If it were a power I could use without inking up, that’d be one thing. I could justify that as _my_ superpower, so long as it’s not too egregiously against the rules. But I don’t think looking at shit that’s already happened is gonna be much help in this situation.”

“Eight.”

“Maybe if you could let me see the _future_ that’d be another thing entirely.”

“What?” was all that Delphi had time to reply with before Ursula pulled away from the ropes and returned to her fighting stance.

“You should have stayed down.”

“Yeah, nah. I ain’t losin’ this fight.”

The Marquess clicked his tongue disapprovingly. “Too stupid to know when you cannot win.”

“Far as I’m concerned that’s an advantage,” Ursula replied with a bloodstained grin. A small but steady stream of the stuff was still leaking from her nose, and she could taste that a significant amount was in her mouth, too – an acrid, metallic tang spread across her tongue. “Means it’s gonna be harder for y’all to take me down.”

“Hmph. The round will resume when the bell rings. Try not to disappoint me further.”

“I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve.”

“Like inking?” Delphi interjected.

“No outside help.”

“ _Come on_.”

Ursula ignored her inkling’s protests, raising her fists and grinning cockily. She had lost her temper, and that had made her get _sloppy_. Not a mistake she was going to make again.

The bell rang, and the match resumed. The plan, as far as Ursula was concerned, was to take the remainder of this round slowly and defensively. Minimize the amount of time spent fighting and effectively give herself another minute of recovery before the next round. Of course, that relied on the Marquess taking things slowly on _his_ end, which was admittedly a big gamble on her part. Though, thankfully, it was a gamble that so far seemed to be paying off. The two boxers circled each other slowly and cautiously, waiting for one or the other to take the offensive.

“Why would seeing the future be of any help?” Ursula didn’t respond – part of why she’d been knocked down had been letting her inkling distract her. “And anyway, seeing the future is impossible. Or at least it is the way my abilities function.”

“That’s nice don’t care not the time for this conversation.”

“I’ll explain it simply, then.”

“ _Not the time_.”

“The past is set in stone. It’s already happened, and short of time travel you aren’t going to be able to change that, and so it’s extremely easy for me to view what has already happened so long as I know where to look. The _future_ is not set in stone, and there are multiple possibilities for what could transpire.”

“ _Delphi I am trying to concentrate_.”

“And, more pointedly, if you _know what is going to happen_ then you are going to react to that and as a result what is going to happen will- on your right!”

“I’m fucking aware!” The Marquess was charging her, leading with his left shoulder. Ursula quickly weaved to the left – which turned out to be a mistake, as it put her in range of a right hook to her side. The only reason that didn’t lead immediately to another beatdown was the bell picking that moment to ring. Three minutes were up, the first round was over.

“Hmph. You have one minute to rest.”

Ursula grunted, nursing her freshly bruised side as she lurched her way over to the ropes before sitting down.

“As I was saying before we were interrupted- don’t you groan at me, this is important and you’ve been bugging me about it for days now!”

“You _coulda_ picked a better fuckin’ time to decide to spill the beans, that’s all I’m sayin’.”

“The _point_ is that seeing the future is significantly more strenuous because the future is not set in stone. The prana costs escalate much more quickly and the toll seeing all those options takes on your mind means that anything more than ten seconds ahead will result in headaches, disorientation, and eventually unconsciousness – which is good because beyond that it could fry your brain and _kill_ you.”

“Wait, hold on,” Ursula said, frowning slightly. “Lemme just get this straight. You’re sayin’ you _can_ let me see the future.”

“I literally just finished explaining why I can’t, there’s a hard limit of ten seconds and-”

“But you _can_ let me see what’s gonna happen _up to_ ten seconds from now, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t see how that would be helpful-”

“Bitch I don’t need to know what he’s gonna have for breakfast next Thursday, I just need to know where his fists are gonna be in the immediate future so I can be where they aren’t.”

Delphi went quiet for a moment. “You won’t be able to see in detail without inking.”

“That’s actually a benefit. Visions like your normal ones would just be a distraction. If I can just instinctively know what he’s gonna do next, then that’s all the advantage I’m gonna need.”

“That much I can do.”

“Hell yeah,” Ursula said with a confident grin. “I think we just hit a motherfuckin’ turning point.”

“I had never even considered this possible application of my powers,” Delphi muttered.

“That’s ‘cos you’re too stuck in the recon mindset. You aren’t ever on the front lines, so you’ve never _had to_ think about using your powers like this.”

“Will have to investigate further to see if it’s practical.”

“I’ve got an idea how we can do that.”

“Yes. This fight should provide sufficient data.” Delphi wasn’t physically there, but somehow Ursula knew she was nodding confidently. “Kick his ass, Host.”

“Hell fuckin’ yeah,” Ursula responded as she pulled herself upright and walked to the centre of the ring.

“Your minute’s up.”

“I’m ready.”

“You had better be.”

The bell rang, and the second round began.

Once again, Ursula elected to take things slowly. She’d _tried_ immediately taking the offensive _last_ round, and it hadn’t gone well. Besides which, she hadn’t actually _tested_ using her futuresight in a fight yet. Really she’d not tested it at _all_ , aside from maybe some instinctive premonitions of immediate danger she guessed. She didn’t even know she _could_ use it on command, or at all. This was a trial by fire – either this worked, or she was probably not going to win this fight. The best test would be to let the Marquess take the first move and, if she could see it coming, then her plan was going to work and if she couldn’t then she was just gonna hafta fight better.

And so she waited, keeping her guard up and keeping a close eye on the Marquess. Scrutinizing his every movement, waiting for an opening while he did the same. “What’s the matter? I thought you were gonna fight me, not just stand around staring.” The Marquess seemed unphased by Ursula’s taunting, unfortunately. “Clock’s tickin’.”

“That is your problem, not mine.” Unfortunately, he was right. It was pretty clear that Ursula was on the defensive – she’d taken more hits and thrown fewer punches herself so far. Just going by points, that meant she was losing. And if no one got knocked down, that meant the match would be decided by points which meant she _lost_. So if she kept playing super defensively and _he_ kept playing super defensively then that meant she lost. Which meant she had no choice but to take the offensive.

“Fine then,” she retorted, loosening her fighting stance and lowering her fists. “If you ain’t gonna fight...” She raised her right fist to point at the Marquess. “Then I’m gonna end this. Here and now.”

“Bold words considering your performance so far.”

“I only need to land one punch.”

“Bold words.”

“This time when I get the offensive I’m not losing it.” Ursula returned to her fighting stance. “Nice job completely missing that big fucking opening I gave you there, by the way.”

“I know a trap when I see it.”

“Hmph. Fine, then, I’ll come to you. Delphi, you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ve not exactly done this before.”

“Well, it’s trial by fire time so I hope you can figure out how to make it do _now_.”

“Wait hold on-” Delphi attempted to interject as Ursula ducked and darted forward. Ursula would be perfectly happy to wait, of course, but she didn’t have the _time_. They’d already wasted a full minute on sizing each other up and throwing out trash talk. The longer this fight went on, the more likely it was for her to slip up and get her butt kicked. _Again_. She didn’t have the time to slowly get to grips with how this worked, and neither did Delphi.

Ursula struggled to put words to exactly what happened next. There was that same sense of apprehension she’d felt before Erin got shot. And beyond that something _more_ , though the exact nature of that something more was beyond her vocabulary. It was like she could _sense_ what was going to happen next – and she didn’t mean that in a flowery metaphorical sort of way. No, she was using the word sense absolutely literally, which was why finding words was so _hard_. How do you describe what the future smells like? She didn’t know, but she could sure as fuck smell it, and also _taste_ it. That metallic tang of blood in her mouth faded away, replaced with... whatever.

The other senses were at least a bit easier to put into words, if only a little. She would have _thought_ that seeing the future would have been, well, like seeing the future. Actually physically seeing what was going to happen next. That wasn’t what she saw. It was more like... a vague impression of motion that hadn’t happened yet. The sound of the future was, similarly, not the sound of the Marquess’s punch that hadn’t been thrown yet but rather a low buzzing drone. The _most_ useful was the sensation of touch. It felt like tiny spiders were crawling all over her fur, concentrated most roughly in the direction his next punch was going to come from.

Part of why she was having so much trouble describing what she was seeing and feeling was that it lasted only a few seconds. She stopped her charge short and quickly hopped backwards. A second or so later, the Marquess attempted to punish her reckless charge forward with a left hook that _would_ have collided with her face but instead hit nothing but air because Ursula had already dodged his attack before he’d made it. She wasn’t entirely sure _how_ she’d managed to take the various bits of sensory data Delphi’s powers had given her and translated it into a successful dodge, but honestly she wasn’t going to complain about that.

Of course, she also didn’t have the time to dwell on that fact. She was, after all, still in the middle of a match. And her opponent had just whiffed a big punch. “Gotcha, motherfucker.” His eyes widened in shock, just for a moment, before Ursula counterattacked with her own left hook. Almost a full-on haymaker. No finesse, no caution, no compensating for her inertial dampener that she didn’t have. She committed herself fully, putting all her considerable strength behind one big finisher that collided directly with the Marquess’s head before he had a chance to react.

The force of Ursula’s punch was enough to sweep the larger man off his feet and knock him to the ground, hard. He impacted with the ring hard enough to bounce slightly, and there was enough momentum that he ended up rolling several times, finishing several feet away and face-down. He made a very brief attempt to push himself to his feet that failed miserably. “That was... holy _shit_ ,” Ami said, no longer bothering to keep up the character. “I keep forgetting that you guys hit like god damn _trucks_ when you wanna. And that dodge! Was that a superpower dodge or did you just get lucky?”

“Uh...” Ami breaking character never failed to catch her off guard. Mostly because of how fucking _casually_ she always seemed to act. Like this was just a game – which, to be fair, it kind of was, at least to Ami. “A bit of both, honestly.”

“It was _super cool_ either way.”

“So, uh. Do I win?”

“Yeah,” Ami responded, slowly pulling herself to her feet. It was also _really weird_ hearing her voice coming out of a six foot five musclebound boxer. “If I were a _real_ person and not a really sophisticated hologram there’s _no way_ I’d be getting back up after that hit.”

“Oh. Okay.” Ursula didn’t particularly like the implication that Ami _could_ keep going but elected not to.

“And anyway I’d say that was a pretty good ending, considering this was like the third real boss fight. I guess it ending in the second round is _kinda_ anticlimactic but I don’t want it to _drag_ , you know?”

“Uh, yeah. Right.”

“Aaaaaanyway, that’s it for this fight, I think. Hold on, lemme just...” Ami slowly pulled herself to her feet, shaking herself off. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again she’d shifted back into character.

The Marquess glared imperiously down at Ursula. “... It would seem that I underestimated you. Greatly.” He slowly walked towards her, almost closing the gap completely before he stopped. “Congratulations. You won, fair and square.” He pulled off a glove and held his hand out.

“Yeah.” Ursula suddenly felt very bad about using her superpowers. Only for a moment, though, before the lingering taste of blood reminded her just how badly the first round had gone. It was, she supposed, not real. And winning was, unfortunately, more important than her pride in this particular situation. Besides, she’d already justified using Delphi’s powers to herself. It wasn’t _really_ cheating. Or at least not _as_ cheating as outright inking would have been. “Hey, tell you what,” she said, slowly beginning to smile as she took his hand and shook it. His grip was firm and strong, unsurprisingly. “Let’s have a rematch at some point. No stakes, nothing on the line. Just a fight for fun.”

The Marquess raised his eyebrows in an expression of mild surprise, before returning Ursula’s smile. “I think I would like that very much,” he said, before abruptly vanishing.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Ursula said, collapsing backwards onto the ropes.

“Ursula!” The instant the doberman let her guard down, Viola climbed up into the ring and gave her a hug. “Are you okay?!”

“Oof, yeah. I’m fine. Took a few good hits, but nothing too bad. No broken ribs this time, at least.”

“Well, that’s good at least,” Erin said, electing not to attempt to squeeze through the ropes.

“Hey so,” Vienna added, entering the ring herself. “Next time? Just use your superpowers _right away_ instead of waiting until _after_ you get your ass beat. Okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ursula said, waving her hand dismissively. “This was a special case. And hey, I fuckin’ won, didn’t I?”

“With all due respect, darling, you still have a _lot_ of blood on your face.”

“Yeah but I _won_.”

“Look, I _know_ I’m being a worrywort, but... Erin got shot and Viola got kidnapped.” Vienna frowned. “No more close calls, okay?”

The group fell silent for a moment as the gravity of the situation settled back in. Erin had, in fact, almost died, after all. And, as flippant as she was, Ursula had taken a beating. Viola stood up, pulling away from Ursula and standing in the centre of the ring. “We can’t keep this up.”

“Huh?”

“I mean... We’re not going to get out of here. Not at this rate.”

Viola’s words hit like a ton of bricks. Once again, silence fell over the group as everyone struggled to find a response and failed. Eventually, Erin spoke up. “Okay. You’re right. But what do you propose we _do_ about it?”

Viola frowned. “I... Have an idea. I don’t know if it’ll work, though. It’s not really a plan yet, but-”

“Hey, fuck it, it’s better than the fat lot of nothing we’ve been goin’ on,” Ursula interjected.

“ _Anything_ proactive is a good thing,” Vienna added with a nod, sitting down beside Ursula. “Besides, if you need more time to think, that just gives us an excuse to take a _break_ because my feet are _still_ killing me after the walk here.”

“Yeah,” Viola said, smiling in spite of herself. “I think we could _all_ use a bit of a break right now.”

“ _Especially_ me.”

“I thought you were fine?”

“I _am_ but I still got my ass kicked. I need a god damn _nap_.”

Viola sighed as the tension that had been lingering over the group _finally_ lifted, if only a little bit. “Let’s take a little time to recover, but we shouldn’t wait _too_ long. Who knows when something _else_ is going to go wro-”

As if on cue, a distressingly familiar _crack_ echoed through the Colosseum. Viola’s legs gave out under her before she even felt a _hint_ of pain. Panic set in as she reached down and grabbed at her knee, only to find that it was still attached to her body – thank _god_. That was only a slight consolation, though. Her sweatpants were wet with blood. Not nearly as much as Erin had lost, but enough to be immediately distressing.

“Viola!” She wasn’t sure which of her friends called out her name. Probably all of them at once, or maybe just Vienna or Erin or Ursula. Now that she’d _noticed_ it the pain was excruciating and it was hard to think of anything else or pay proper attention to her surroundings.

Which was why it caught her so thoroughly off guard when someone grabbed her by her hoodie’s hood and lifted her forcefully to her feet. It _also_ hurt, though it was nothing compared to her leg. No, it wasn’t until something cold and _extremely sharp_ was pressed against her neck that her attention was drawn away from her leg and to whoever had accosted her from behind.

“So,” Makoto said, her tone of voice _upsettingly_ cheery. “What was that about my arm no longer existing?”


	12. Act 12 - The Guard Dog and The Wolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faced with the strongest opponent yet, Viola and her friends need to put aside their differences and work together as a team if they want to have any hope of survival.

“Let her go! Now!” Vienna found herself immediately gripped by a profound panic the likes of which she’d never really experienced before. Well, no, that was a lie. She’d absolutely experienced this exact panic several times before over the course of this whole stupid thing, coinciding with all the times Viola had almost gotten herself killed. She inked up on instinct, readying herself for a fight.

“I would think twice, kid. Don’t want anything unfortunate to happen.” Makoto slightly twisted the sword she had pressed against Viola’s neck for emphasis, applying _exactly_ enough pressure not to break through the skin.

Vienna frowned. “I...”

“Don’t worry, I don’t have any intentions of hurting anyone just yet. All you’ve gotta do is agree to play along.”

“Fuck you. Let her go.” Vienna raised her hands and activated shields around Makoto’s arms.

The soldier rolled her eyes in mild exasperation. “Sniper.”

Oh. Right. The sniper. Vienna froze for just a moment, biting her lip in frustration. She could probably block Sunny’s shots with ease, but she couldn’t do that and also protect Viola at the same time. And, honestly, she wasn’t entirely sure she could move faster than the sniper, or even move faster than Makoto. “Fine,” she said, clearly not particularly fine with the situation even as she lowered her arms and de-inked. “You win.”

“There we go. Does anyone else feel like making a stupid decision? No? Good, we can get down to business then.” She unceremoniously released Viola, removing the sword from its place against her neck. “Yuri’s waiting near the entrance to patch you up. Don’t want you bleeding out.”

“We’ve got our own first aid supplies,” Vienna snapped.

“Kid, I’ve seen your attempts at first aid. _Please_ just leave this to the trained medical professional.” She gestured at Ursula with the sword. “You too. I want you at the top of your game.”

“Fuck you, I ain’t lettin’ your friend anywhere near me,” Ursula growled.

“Oh my god,” Makoto said with a frustrated sigh. “Look, you just had a fucking fistfight with an accurate recreation of a guy Cap’n Comet _himself_ could barely beat. Please at _least_ let the medic have a _look_ at you.”

“Yeah sure I’m just gonna let the bad guy just sort of do whatever he wants to me.”

“Have you people never heard of the Hippocratic Oath?”

“Fuck you.”

“Look, if we intended to kill you do you _really_ think Ami wouldn’t have stepped in to stop us by now?”

“ _Fuck you_ ,” Ursula repeated as she pulled herself upright.

“Oh my _god_ fine we can skip the medical attention, then. Go ahead and fight at a disadvantage! Whatever! I don’t care!”

“Just tell us what you want,” Vienna interjected.

“That’s easy.” Makoto pointed her sword at Ursula. “You. Fight me.”

“You don’t gotta ask me twice.” Ursula raised her fist and shifted back into a boxing stance once more.

“Wait, hold on,” Vienna said, putting a hand in front of Ursula. “Why?”

“Because she looks _tough_. Like _hell_ am I letting you all leave without fighting her.”

“That’s it?”

“Sounds like good enough reasoning for me,” Ursula said, smirking in spite of herself. “You and me, one on one. No outside help. That means your sniper friend stays out of it.”

“That was the plan, yes. If any of your friends tries to interfere, though...” Makoto’s sentence trailed off, allowing the implication to hang heavily over everyone.

“Ursula,” Vienna interjected, voice tinged with worry. “I don’t think you should fight her on your own. Remember the _last_ time you-”

“I’ve got Delphi and she doesn’t have the drop on me. I’ll be _fine._ Probably.”

“Ursu-”

“Vienna. Stop. If you interfere you’ll get _shot_.” It was Ursula’s turn to put a hand in front of Vienna. “‘No more close calls’, remember? That applies to you, too.”

“... Fine. Just... Please don’t die, okay?”

“I’ll try my best, babe. You do the same, okay?”

“Right.” Vienna turned to leave the ring. “C’mon, Viola. Let’s get out of the way.”

“R-right,” Viola muttered. She stood off to the side of Makoto, still shaking slightly from the sensation of the sword placed against her neck. “S-sorry.”

“Wait, hold on,” Makoto said, caught slightly off guard. “Did... did you just apologize to _me?_ ”

“F-for the arm thing. You’re mad about it and-”

“No I’m not.”

“What?”

Makoto shrugged nonchalantly. “You bluffed and I fell for it. Happens sometimes. Can’t let that kinda thing get to you.”

“I, um. I thought you were doing this because-”

“I told you why I’m doing this. I haven’t gotten to have a _real_ fight with a _real_ person in five hundred years. This is catharsis, pure and simple.” Makoto smiled, once again settling into an unsettlingly cheery mood. “No stakes, just a fight against a tough opponent for fun.”

“There are stakes, though,” Viola said with a frown. “If we don’t get to Ami soon she’s going to launch the nukes, right?”

“Hm? Oh, right, that.” Makoto shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, kid, it’ll be fine.” She gestured with her head. “Now get outta the ring before you get caught in the crossfire.”

“... Right,” Viola muttered, once more completely at a loss. She turned and limped her way out of the ring.

“And seriously, stop by Yuri and get that leg patched up. I _promise_ he’s not gonna do anything to hurt you.”

“She’ll consider it,” Ursula said tersely.

“Good.”

“Are you okay?” Erin asked as Viola slipped through the ropes and out of the ring.

“I’m fine,” Viola muttered in response. She was not _really_ fine – she was in a lot of pain and was bleeding fairly profusely. The back of her left pantleg was wet with blood enough to shine slightly, and walking was problematic. But, well, her mind was elsewhere.

“You don’t _look_ fine, darling.”

“My leg’s still attached, I’ll be fine.”

“Viola,” Vienna said, simply and sternly.

“Come on,” Erin added, slipping one of Viola’s arms over her shoulder. “We’re going to see that medic of theirs.”

“... Are you sure about that?” Vienna said. “What if he-”

“You and I are still fresh and ready to fight, darling,” Erin said. “I very much doubt that he’ll be able to stand up to the both of us. And putting that aside, Viola gave the impression he’s more straightforward than his fellows. If we’re going to get a straight answer out of anyone, my bet is on _him_.”

“That makes sense, I guess. You okay with this, Viola?”

“I’d like some straight answers.”

“I meant, like, having one of the soldiers get close to you with your guard down.”

“Oh.” Viola frowned. As much as she was hurting, right now her mind was more focused on the aforementioned answers. And, more than that, she was focused on what Makoto had said. She wasn’t entirely sure _why_ , but she couldn’t take her mind off of it. Why was she so nonchalant about everything? Viola didn’t entirely know and that frustrated her for... _some_ reason. “... Maybe one of you should stay behind and keep an eye on the fight.”

“Considering the sniper, we can’t interfere, even if it goes south,” Erin said. “Unfortunately, we have to leave this to Ursula. I trust her abilities.” She didn’t sound particularly confident in that statement, but she was right. They _couldn’t_ help Ursula if she needed help.

“There’s not much point in one of us staying behind if we can’t do anything, yeah,” Vienna said, taking up a position on Viola’s other side. “What we _can_ do is pressure the medic guy to explain what’s _actually_ going on.”

“Right...” Viola muttered as they walked back over to the elevator, where Yuri was waiting for them.

“Pants off.”

“Excuse you?”

“You got shot in the leg. Your pants are in the way. I need you to take them off.” Yuri spoke tersely and matter-of-factly, which didn’t really sit well with Erin or Vienna.

“We haven’t actually agreed to let you touch my sister, you know.”

“That’s nice but you don’t get a choice.” He stepped forward and lifted Viola off of her friends’ shoulders. “I would rather not do this by force. Runs the risk of hurting the patient. Which is the exact opposite of what we want to happen.”

“H-hey! Let her go!”

“I’m not holding her anywhere,” Yuri responded simply, carrying Viola over to a nearby pillar. “Here. Not the _most_ comfortable, but it’s the best you’re going to get. Sit here.”

“You can’t just-”

“Shut up.” Vienna winced slightly. For someone who was supposed to be more straightforward than the others, Yuri sure was coming across as pretty hard to deal with. She hadn’t gotten to interact with Makoto very much, or with Bob and Sunny at _all_ , so she didn’t really have much frame of reference. But if _this_ was better than they were, she found herself kind of glad she’d not had to talk to any of them yet. “Your sister’s bleeding out and you guys clearly lack the medical supplies to take care of it. I don’t. She’ll _probably_ not bleed to death by the looks of it, but she’ll still recover much quicker if a real doctor deals with it.”

“With all due respect,” Erin said. “You’re a _pre-splice_ doctor. Likely you know about as much about treating Viola as I do.”

“You’d be right if this required any kind of surgery or internal work. It doesn’t. She’s still technically human enough that basic patchwork that would work on me will work on her, too. Unless some stitches and a bandage makes post-splicers explode?” Erin didn’t respond. “I thought so. Now shut up and either help me get these pants off or get out of my way.”

“Right...” Erin muttered to herself. She knelt down on one side of Viola, removing the backpack and putting it to the side – considering the bleeding, it was probably for the best for Viola to change into a fresh pair of pants. That was true regardless of whether or not she elected to allow this clearly hostile person to lay a finger on Viola. “Why are you helping us?” she asked.

“Orders. We’re not supposed to let any of you die.”

“You just said Viola was probably not going to die, though,” Erin retorted. “I’d appreciate a real answer, please.”

“I’m a doctor,” Yuri said simply. “Helping people who are injured is literally my job description.”

“I find it extremely difficult to believe that it’s as simple as that.”

“It really is,” Yuri said with a shrug. “Five hundred years is a long time to hold onto complex motivations. I became a soldier because it was the easiest way to become a doctor and that was always my dream. Anything beyond that doesn’t matter any more because all the people involved except me have been dead for centuries.”

“I... suppose that makes sense,” Erin said, not entirely convinced it made any sense at all.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. Being a combat medic, I saw a lot of people get hurt. A lot of people _die_. Usually under my watch. And surprisingly it turns out that people dying when it’s specifically your job to make sure they don’t die is a really shitty feeling. Lie down,” he ordered, and Viola did so. “You, lift her leg up for me. Get the wound above her heart.”

“Right.”

The patch of white fur on Viola’s leg was stained a dark red with blood, shiny and sticky. “It looks worse than it is, I think. Will have to wash it off, but this is barely a glancing blow. Might have some difficulties walking for a bit but that’s it.”

“Just tell me what to do,” Erin said. “I’m sure Vienna is willing to help, too.”

“The other rabbit? She already left.”

“what”

“I figured you’d noticed. She didn’t seem to be trying to be sneaky about it or anything.”

“I absolutely did not notice her leaving. When did that even happen?”

“Around when you spoke up. She went inside. My guess is she’s headed for the bleachers.”

“What?!” Viola interjected before wincing in pain.

“No sudden outbursts, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Why on _earth_ would she be doing that?” Erin said incredulously.

“The whole reason any of this is happening is because we’ve got you pinned down with a sniper, right? I figure she’s planning on taking that out of the equation.”

“Oh.” Erin frowned slightly. “And... you’re just going to let her do that?”

“Fight’s already started. Sunny’s done her job.”

“Why are you being so casual about this?!” Viola snapped, too deep in the grip of panic to care that said panic was making the pain worse. “She’s going to get herself killed!”

“We’ve got orders not to kill any of you. Don’t panic.”

“She has a gun!”

Viola continued to panic, struggling in Erin’s grip. “D-darling, he’s got a point. You’re making your wound worse.”

“Don’t worry. I know Sunny better than any of you do, so I can safely say this absolutely isn’t going to go the way _either_ of you think it’s going to go.”

Viola frowned, violently unconvinced that Vienna was going to be alright. But, unfortunately, she wasn’t in the position to go help her – or drag her back kicking and screaming, either or.

“I’m going to go talk sense into her,” Erin said, slowly lowering Viola’s leg.

“I’d rather you stay here. I don’t _need_ the extra pair of hands, but it’ll make things go much quicker.”

“But-”

“Don’t worry,” Yuri repeated himself flippantly. “Sunny’s got godlike aim but she can’t throw a punch to save her life. Close the distance quick enough and she won’t even have time to fire.”

“Okay, but what about the other way around? Don’t you want to make sure your friend doesn’t get hurt?”

“Just because Sunny can’t throw a punch doesn’t mean your friend stands any chance of hurting her. Trust me on this, she’s got her own ways of surviving.”

“That doesn’t fill me with confidence.”

“Yeah, I figured. That’s enough talking, help me clean this blood up, then I’m going to need you to hold her still while I apply the stitches.”

“Right...” Erin wasn’t particularly pleased with the abrupt change in topic. Patching up Viola was important, but Vienna’s situation was clearly more urgent. He _claimed_ things were going to be alright, but as she’d said; she wasn’t convinced. There was really only one thing she was certain about.

After this was over she was going to have Words with Vienna.

~~~~~~

The way Vienna saw things, there was really only one thing she could do. After she was reasonably certain Yuri wasn’t going to attempt to poison Viola, she set out to take out the sniper. It made perfectly logical sense, to her at least. The biggest threat on the table was absolutely Makoto, but the sniper was a close second. And, more pressingly, the sniper was forcing them to play along. She _wanted_ to trust Ursula’s abilities as a fighter, she really did. But... she just couldn’t believe that the doberman was capable of beating an actual trained soldier with five hundred plus years of experience, superpowers or no. Not on her own, at least. And she _certainly_ didn’t trust the soldiers to play fair. Certainly, they hadn’t played fair in any of their encounters thus far. Ambushes, knockout darts, and using the threat of sniper fire to keep the girls in line.

So fuck it, if they weren’t going to play fair, neither was Vienna.

It was surprisingly easy to make her way into the bleachers. Considering that this was a recreation of a building that was ancient even by pre-splice standards, the layout wasn’t really all that different from a modern sports arena. Which made sense, she supposed. Why fix what wasn’t broken?

The _hard_ part was going to be finding the sniper. Vienna had a vague idea of what direction the shot had come from. Maybe. She was _pretty_ sure, at least. Probably. But even with that narrowing things down a little bit, the Colosseum was _huge_ and most of it was the stands. There was, at least, not an audience to contend with. That made things a bit easier – if Vienna saw a person, that was the sniper for certain. The problem was that she _didn’t_ see a person. The stands were completely and utterly empty aside from herself.

“I don’t like this,” Edifice said tersely. “We should go back to the others.”

“We’ve got superpowers on our side,” Vienna responded, inking up. “I can block her shots and then kick her butt.”

“It’s easy enough to say that, but you still have to actually block her shots, Vienna.”

“Yeah, that’s obvious.”

“What I _mean_ is that if her reflexes are faster than yours you will die.”

Vienna winced. “I mean... It can’t be that bad, right?”

“You saw what she did to Erin.”

“Well, uh, maybe if I close the distance quickly enough-”

“Vienna. A gun is still a gun even up close.”

“But it’s a really _big_ gun, right? Probably pretty unwieldy and-”

“She’s a _cyborg_. And anyway even if that _would_ be a problem, she’s also a _soldier_ so she probably has another smaller gun on her.”

“Mnf.”

“This was a bad idea, Vienna.”

“... Maybe you’re right,” Vienna muttered. “But we’re here now.”

“Yes but there’s nothing stopping us from leaving.”

Vienna bit her lip. “She shot Viola. Doesn’t matter if she’s probably going to be fine, I can’t just let that stand.”

“Vienna-”

“I don’t care what happens to me. Viola is more important.”

“Vienna listen to yourself.”

“I’m not letting them get away with hurting Viola!”

“What will Viola do if you die?”

Vienna winced. “Fine. What do you propose I do, then?”

“You’re much more useful down with Viola and Erin than you are up here alone.”

“Fine. Fine! You’re right.” Vienna sighed as the heated emotions that had led her to this point dissipated. “I probably should have put more thought into this.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“Two heads are better than one?”

“We can cover for each others’ emotional biases. That’s an advantage most people don’t have.”

“I guess? Mostly so far it’s you covering for _my_ emotional biases.”

“Yes, well, once we finish here and move on to Locksmouth, I’m probably going to have to ask you to return the favour,” Edifice replied. “For now, just take a moment to cool down and then let’s go back to the others.”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s just do that.” Vienna sighed, letting some of the tension evaporate. It wasn’t going to go away _entirely_ – there was an unfortunate baseline amount of stress from the situation. But at least she felt... better? Better. If only slightly. Enough that she felt comfortable de-inking.

Which turned out to be a mistake. Something like a hollow cylinder made of plastic or metal or something similar pressed up against the back of her head. She didn’t need to have experience being held at gunpoint to know that was what was happening here. Slowly, operating on instinct, she raised her hands in the air, and in return the gun was removed from her skull. Not that much had changed – it was still almost certainly trained on her head, and would probably kill her if fired. The soldiers at least seemed to specifically want to not kill them, so all Vienna had to do was not force the sniper’s hand.

The sniper – Sunny, if she recalled the name correctly – circled around, keeping her gun trained on Vienna. It was smaller than she would have expected, compact enough that even Viola could probably hold it one-handed. It was shaped like a gun, which was the most that Vienna could say. “I guess you were right,” she muttered sullenly. “She _does_ have a smaller gun.” The actual rifle was strapped to her back at a slight angle – it _had_ to be, because it was longer than she was tall. Hell, it was longer than _Vienna_ was tall. A big ugly hunk of dull black... whatever the fuck it was that guns were made of, with a long cylindrical tube thing that was probably where the bullets (or whatever it fired) came out of and a small telescope-looking thing attached. Vienna had, at least, been right that it was too unwieldy to use effectively in close quarters.

But, again, that was what the smaller gun was for. Sunny gestured downwards with it, and Vienna got the picture. Slowly, she lowered herself onto her knees, and then further, sitting down on her feet, hands still in the air. The sniper nodded slightly before, with one hand still keeping her gun pointed at Vienna, the other reached down and pulled out what appeared to be a pair of handcuffs. “You’re _kidding_ me.”

Sunny was not, in fact, kidding her. She circled back around behind the rabbit and shoved her so she was face down on the ground, quickly securing her arms behind her back with the cuffs and then sitting on her to make sure she didn’t get back up. The smaller woman wasn’t exactly very heavy, and were Vienna not handcuffed she’d probably be able to get up even _with_ Sunny sitting on her. But, well, she _was_ handcuffed. And Sunny still had two guns. Fighting back was absolutely not in the cards, not for now.

Not until she came up with a plan of action.

~~~~~~

Ursula was, understandably, on edge. She wasn’t at the top of her game, not after the beating she’d just taken. She’d _won_ the fight against the Marquess, but barely, and not without taking some serious blows first. And that had been a part of the game. As far as she could tell, Ami _wanted_ them to win in the end. Even if she _hadn’t_ abruptly discovered she had futuresight, she’d probably have been able to pull ahead and secure a victory _eventually_ – just a more narrow one.

But this _wasn’t_ part of the game. And Makoto had a fucking _sword_. It was about two feet long, narrow and slightly curved with a single sharp edge. “So you’re not even gonna pretend to fight fair, then?” Ursula said, gesturing at the thing with her head.

“I’ve seen your fights, kid. Don’t pretend you can’t handle an armed opponent.”

“Still seems a bit unbalanced in your favour.”

“If I wanted things to be unbalanced in my favour, I’d have a gun, not a katana.”

Ursula frowned slightly. “I thought it was a sword.”

“A katana is a type of sword.”

“There’s _types?_ ”

“Don’t worry too much, it’s mostly arbitrary. Katana is just the Japanese word for sword.”

“I speak Japanese and I’ve never heard that word before in my lifetime.”

“How many times have you ever felt the need to talk about swords in Japanese?”

“... Okay, fair.”

“Anyway, that’s enough banter. Get ready to fight.”  
  
“I’m plenty ready,” Ursula retorted, quickly shifting back into the same boxing stance she’d used against the Marquess.

“I want you at the top of your game, kid. No holding back. That means bring out the goo thing.”

“You said no outside help.”

“Look, I don’t know how your weird goo thing works. All I know is that you’re pretty clearly _way_ stronger with it than without it. And that means this fight will be way more _fun_ with it than without it.”

“So?”

“The whole reason I’m fighting you is because it looks like it’d be fun.”

Ursula’s frown deepened. That reasoning felt just as off _now_ as it did when it had first been put forward. But, on the other hand, somehow she couldn’t deny that she agreed with it. “Fine,” she said, dark blue ink quickly flowing out from nowhere and enveloping her body. “I’m gonna go all out, but you’d better return the favour.”

“I intend to.”

“Good.”

Makoto made the first move, which was good. Ursula’s futuresight meant she had the advantage when _reacting_ to attacks. It took her a few seconds to realize that Makoto hadn’t actually taken the first move _yet_. That was going to take some getting used to – she could already foresee it resulting in her taking a hit she didn’t need to if she wasn’t careful. But _this time_ it _didn’t_ , which was the important thing for now. It gave her enough warning that by the time Makoto grasped her sword with both hands and swung it vertically at the doberman, she had already leapt to the side out of range. “Gonna hafta try harder than that.”

Makoto didn’t respond beyond frowning and swinging her sword again, this time horizontally. And, again, Ursula had already jumped out of range of the swing. “Fine. Traditional kenjutsu bullshit was never my strong point anyway.” Makoto darted forward, much faster than she had been, swinging her sword with one hand, and then again and again. A veritable barrage of swings from every direction – and Ursula dodged them all easily. It helped that Makoto’s attacks were wild and big and telegraphed to hell and back. Ursula probably could have dodged them even _without_ knowing they were coming.

“I could do this all day!”

“I don’t like this.”

“ _Not the time._ ”

Delphi, unsurprisingly, continued to talk directly into Ursula’s mind. “She’s making this too easy.”

“It’s almost as if she just said she’s bad with swords.”

“Ursula, you’ve seen her move before. She’s _absolutely_ capable of being faster than this.”

_That_ gave Ursula pause – though not too much, Makoto was still pressing her attack. Yes, her movements were wild and clumsy. And _conspicuously_ slow. She’d not even _considered_ how badly that lined up with their previous encounter. And that wasn’t the _only_ thing that didn’t feel right about how the soldier was fighting. Yes, her attacks looked slow and clumsy, but... there were also no openings whatsoever. She could see the immediate future, so she knew for a _fact_ that there was no safe way to approach her, or at least not from the front. So the obvious next step was to try and get to her side. Ideally the left, as she was holding the sword with her right hand. Except she _couldn’t_. Every time she tried to circle around, Makoto had already moved to face her and was throwing out another swing.

And that brought up another thing that felt wrong. If Makoto was so in control of the flow of the fight that Ursula couldn’t actually get close enough to hit her, why hadn’t she been backed into a corner yet? It couldn’t possibly be hard to do – they were in a boxing ring, there was only so much space to move in. And yet Makoto seemed to be almost _intentionally_ throwing out attacks that encouraged Ursula to move _away_ from the ropes every time she got close. It was almost as if the soldier _wanted_ her to keep dodging.

That was when Ursula realized what was going on. “Shit. She’s trying to wear us out.”

“I thought you’d figure that out way sooner. Honestly, I’m almost disappointed in you.” Makoto lifted the sword up, up, _up_ , and then sent it crashing down directly into the floor of the ring hard enough that the sword embedded itself into the ground. Ursula dodged the large attack easily, of course – it, like every other attack Makoto had thrown out, was big and slow and telegraphed. But that wasn’t the _point_. Ursula had been so focused on figuring out what Makoto was up to to notice until now, but her breathing was heavier, her chest felt like it was on fire, and her muscles felt sore. The sensations were muted, probably because she was inked, but the fact that she was feeling them at _all_ was worrying. Clearly, she’d been exerting herself more than she’d thought.

And, while she was busy having this realization, Makoto kept right on pressing her offence. She continued forward, making a grab at Ursula’s neck that the doberman dodged – barely. She tried to put as little effort into her evasion as she could, but she couldn’t just _let_ herself get grabbed by the throat. So instead she moved out of the way of the strike before it happened. Circled around behind Makoto and attempted to throw a quick right hook.

A right hook that was immediately aborted as Makoto pulled the sword out of the ground and slashed upwards, once again forcing Ursula backwards. She _barely_ managed to successfully dodge that attack. Her movements were getting slow and sluggish. Her breath came slower and heavier. “What happened to being able to keep this up all day, kid?” Makoto said with a smirk.

Ursula did her best to not let the taunting get to her. She’d already seen how badly letting her temper get away from her could potentially go in the fight against the Marquess. If she wanted _any_ chance of winning this, keeping levelheaded was going to be crucial. Or else she’d end up doing something _stupid_ and _impulsive_ that would get her killed like charge headfirst into the blender with blind aggression.

“... Wait,” Ursula muttered to herself.

“Wait?” Delphi replied.

“I’ve got a plan.”

“Oh no.”

“I’m gonna charge headfirst into the blender.”

“ _What?!_ That’s a _terrible_ plan!”

But it was too late for Delphi to be the voice of reason because Ursula had already made her move. She stopped her retreat and instead, with a loud and enthusiastic battlecry, decisively stepped forward and grabbed the sword by the blade with both hands.

It _hurt_. A _lot_. But not _nearly_ as much as it probably should have. The pain was undeniably there, but it felt distant and dulled even as the blade sank into Delphi’s gooey flesh (flesh? Whatever Inklings had in place of flesh.) Ursula didn’t intend to give it enough time to really cause any serious damage, though. She tightened her grip (which hurt a _lot_ but she powered through it) and _twisted_ with all her strength, accompanied with a knee to Makoto’s gut. The combination was enough to wrench the sword out of the soldier’s grip.

Ursula had to move quickly from there. Any hesitation, and she had no doubts that Makoto could retrieve her sword with ease if given the chance. So she didn’t give her one. The only minute hesitation came from flipping the sword around – she didn’t even bother _t_ _rying_ to properly hold the thing. That would have taken too long. And anyway, she had _no_ earthly idea how to effectively use a sword in combat. So instead she did something that just about _anybody_ could do, regardless of skill level, and shoved the thing into Makoto’s torso as hard and deep as she fucking could.

Makoto stumbled backwards slightly, and Ursula took that opportunity to back off. Put some distance between herself and her opponent and prepare for whatever Makoto did next. _If_ she did anything next. Typically getting two feet of metal shoved through your chest was enough to end most fights. This wasn’t most fights, though, she realized as Makoto slowly reached up and grabbed the sword’s hilt. “Not bad,” she said with a smirk. “I honestly didn’t see that coming! You probably could have won there if you’d pressed the offensive.”

“I _stabbed you_.”

“Cyborg.”

“... Oh. Right.”

“It’s gonna take a _lot_ more than this to put a stop to me,” Makoto said as she pulled the sword out. There was, Ursula noted, no blood on it. “Gotta admit, though, you’ve kinda made me rethink how I’m approaching this fight.”

“How so?” Ursula asked, hoping to keep Makoto talking. The longer she monologued, the more time _Ursula_ had to rest and recover.

“See, it’s been a long time since I’ve fought like this. Ami’s games were always about _plans_ and _strategies_ and coming up with clever bullshit to win or else she’d get _bored_. And then before that it was my time in the JSDF which was all about _plans_ and _strategies_ and following orders from rich old assholes who had never so much as thrown a fucking punch in their lives.” She held up the sword and looked at it wistfully. “But that shit? That ain’t me. I’m not a planner. I’m not a strategiser. That’s not what I’m _good_ at.”

“And what _are_ you good at, then.”

Makoto violently tossed the sword aside, out of the ring entirely, with enough force that it embedded itself in the ground. “I’m a _thug_. Plain and fucking simple. I beat the shit outta punks like you with my bare hands. Teach ‘em their fuckin’ places.” She reached up and grasped the collar of her bodysuit and tore, pulling it open at the seams and then removing the top half entirely, along with the harnesses, in one quick motion.

She discarded the tattered remains, leaving her clad only in pants, boots, and some bandages that concealed most of her breasts. They didn’t exactly leave _much_ to the imagination, though they were significantly more modest than the typical understickers. Most of her toned, muscular flesh was visible, giving Ursula a good look at the tattoos that covered just about every inch of flesh. Swirls of red and blue and green and black forming patterns of clouds and wind, stopping at her wrists and neck and a large stripe of clean flesh down the middle of her torso. She turned, giving Ursula a good look at her back, and the centrepiece; a stylized image of a wolf from which all the rest of the ink seemed to flow. “Take a good look. Getting to see my ink is a rare privilege. Sign of respect.”

“It’s... impressive.” Intimidating was probably a better word for it. Something about the design made Ursula’s hair practically stand on end.

“Took me _years_ to get it finished,” she said as she turned back around. She rolled her neck slowly over her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. “Now, let’s fight for _real_.”

“Shit,” Ursula muttered under her breath.

“This is a good thing, right?” Delphi said as Ursula raised her fists and shifted her feet. “She’s probably more vulnerable like this, and she doesn’t have the sword anymore. That evens the playing field.”

“Hell no, I’ve seen this exact thing in like a _billion_ martial arts movies. She took her shirt off, we’re _fucked_.”

~~~~~~

Vienna had not yet managed to come up with a plan of action. Escaping wasn’t the issue. Sunny wasn’t particularly heavy, though she got the impression that she wasn’t being sat on with the intent of keeping her in place. The sniper’s attention was on the field, monitoring the other two girls and making sure they didn’t do anything they weren’t supposed to. Which really put how _bad_ her so-called plan had been into perspective. Of _course_ Sunny had known she was coming. It turns out trying to get the drop on someone who was specifically watching you to make sure you didn’t do exactly that wasn’t going to work out. Stupid.

And now she was literally directly on top of her. Vienna couldn’t do _anything_ without Sunny knowing it. There was nothing stopping Vienna from getting up, but Sunny would know and Sunny had a gun. Getting out of the handcuffs would be easy, all she’d have to do is ink up and just sort of goo her way out of them. But Sunny would _know_ and Sunny had _a gun_. Vienna could fairly easily get the gun away from Sunny using her force fields, but she needed her hands free to do that. And she could _get_ her hands free, but _Sunny would know_ and _Sunny had a gun_.

That was the extent of what Vienna had come up with so far. Anything she could think of to proactively get out of this mess would only serve to get her shot. If she inked up first she could at least _probably_ survive a shot or two. Maybe. But she didn’t really want to find out for sure. And, obviously, staying uninked and starting a fight was a death sentence. She didn’t know enough about guns to be able to say for _certain_ – maybe she could power through getting shot and pull out a win? But that would still leave her with a gunshot wound. And they still had Ami’s game to deal with. They’d already had to wait to recover from debilitating wounds _once_. And it was pretty clear at this point that Ursula was going to be left completely out of commission after this was dealt with. She was their best fighter, and if Vienna _also_ ended up needing to recuperate that just left one person to protect Viola. And...

Well, Vienna felt bad to even think it, but Erin had very thoroughly demonstrated herself prone to panic attacks at inopportune moments, making her a less than ideal bodyguard. And, regardless of her protestations to the contrary, Viola wasn’t a fighter _period_. Someone had to make sure she was safe.

She had to think this out. Just jumping into things without any kind of forethought or planning would get her hurt, and as established getting hurt was unacceptable. The problem was that it wasn’t possible to get out from under Sunny without the sniper being aware of it. So, obviously, step one was to figure out a way to get Sunny _off_ of her. Some sort of distraction. But then once again, that brought up the problem that there was just about nothing she could do without Sunny knowing. The _best_ case scenario would be for the distraction to not come from her at all. Which would actually not be _too_ hard to manage. Sunny wasn’t paying any attention to _her_ – she didn’t _need_ to, that’s why she was being sat on – all her attention was instead on Viola and Erin. So therefore all Vienna needed to do was get Viola and Erin to do something that would get all of Sunny’s attention.

... Which raised the issue of how the _fuck_ did she manage _that_ without being able to move her hands.

Or at least not being able to move them _much_. Not enough to meaningfully use her powers, at least. But she didn’t _need_ to use her powers. She just needed to signal Erin. And maybe, just maybe, she had enough wiggle room to manage that.

~~~~~~

“Okay. That should do it. You can put her leg down now – _carefully_. Slower than that.”

“Okay,” Erin replied tersely as she lowered Viola’s leg as slowly as she could without just continuing to hold it in place. Yuri had been _very_ particular about what she needed to do, and had very clearly not been impressed with her aptitude as an assistant.

“Avoid putting too much strain or weight onto it for a while. Don’t want to risk tearing the stitches and making this whole thing pointless.”

“Whatever,” Viola said. She and Erin both seemed to be running extremely low on patience, but the rabbit in particular very much had her mind elsewhere. “Can I put pants on now?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Erin, give me some spare pants.”

“Right,” Erin replied as she dug through the backpack. “We’re starting to run low on spares so we’re going to need to maybe try to _avoid_ getting blood all over our clothing from now on instead of actively seeking it out.”

“Wait, how are we running low? You changed, I need new pants...”

“We weren’t exactly planning to be gone for more than a few hours,” Erin said. “There’s enough here for all of us to change outfits completely _once_.”

“I guess that’s also why we’ve got no water.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have _water?_ ” Yuri interjected.

“You stay out of this,” Viola snapped.

“You’ve been down here for three days with no water. That’s a _very_ long time to go without water. I don’t know enough about post-splice biology to say for sure, but pre-splicers could last maybe a hundred hours or so in ideal conditions.”

“I said _shut up_.”

“Viola, darling, I think maybe you need to calm down.”

“I’m as calm as I’m getting any time soon.”

“Give me five minutes and I can get you some canteens.”

“What?”

“I’m _honestly surprised_ you’re capable of functioning at all having gone almost three days without water. Like I said several times so far, we very specifically want you to _not_ die.”

Viola frowned. “Fine. Whatever. Don’t expect any thanks.”

“I didn’t,” Yuri responded before leaving.

“Um. Pants, please,” Viola said after a moment of awkward silence.

“Oh, yes, right.” Erin tossed a pair of sweatpants that were ironically almost indistinguishable from Viola’s usual clothing to the rabbit. “Please be careful putting them on.”

“They’re just pants, I- ow!” Viola winced. “Okay. Bending my knees is problematic. U-um, could you maybe...”

“Of course, Darling. Hold still.”

“Mnf.” Viola closed her eyes and tried _really hard_ not to think about how close Erin’s boobs were to her thighs. “Thanks I can handle the rest without bending I think.”

“Do you want a hand getting up?”

“Yes, please.”

With some help from Erin, and a significant amount of futile effort trying not to think about Erin’s boobs, Viola managed to stand up. _Staying_ standing was a bit more difficult, and she ended up leaning on a nearby pillar for support. “Can you walk on your own?”

“If I have to, yeah, I think so.”

“Well, I don’t think you _have_ to for now at least. I can act as a human crutch outside of emergencies.”

“U-um,” Viola said with a slight blush. “If, um. If you’re going to do that, c-could you maybe, um...”

“Is something wrong, darling?”

“N-no. It’s fine.” God why did she have to be so _hot?_ “H-how are you holding up?”

“Certainly better than I have any rights to, considering.” She flexed her right arm in emphasis. “I suppose I should ask you the same, but I think I can guess.”

“Mnf,” Viola grunted. “... I’m worried about Vienna.”

“I’m sure she’s fine, darling,” Erin said in her best attempt at being reassuring.

“I wish I could be that confident.”

“If she’d been shot, we would have heard it.”

“I guess so...” Viola said, clearly not convinced.

“I-” Any further conversation was interrupted by Erin’s PET ringing. “Oh!”

Viola perked up immediately. That wasn’t an emergency alert signal, that was a _call_. It was _possible_ it was Ami, she supposed. But Ami didn’t really have a _reason_ to call them right now. And she couldn’t think of a single other person who might be on the other end that she wouldn’t be happy to hear from. It could be fucking _Lars_ for all she cared and she’d be overjoyed. “Answer it!” she said urgently, as though Erin wasn’t almost certainly feeling the exact same way.

“R-right,” Erin stammered, pulling her PET out and picking up the call. “He-”

“Get _off_ of me!”

Viola could feel the colour draining from her face. That was Vienna.

“Wh-” Erin attempted to ask what was going on, but was immediately interrupted by Vienna on the other end.

“Don’t!” she shouted, leaving a conspicuous pause before continuing, “ _sit_ on me you _asshole_.” Erin opened her mouth to say something, but Viola immediately slammed a hand over her snout, placing the other index finger over her mouth in the universal symbol for silence. “What, you think you can just handcuff me and then sit on me and I’m out of the fight?” Vienna continued. “My friends are going to _notice that something’s up any minute now_. Erin could easily figure out exactly where we are with her growth powers and Viola wouldn’t have a hard time sneaking up on you with her invisibility powers. There’s _no way_ you could deal with all three of us at once. And then we’re going to be able to help Ursula without any interference!”

Viola and Erin looked each other in the eye as Vienna started to repeat herself – presumably in case they didn’t immediately pick up on what was going on and what the plan was. Neither Erin nor Viola needed it. The mouse quickly hung up and nodded. “Are you ready?”

“Why are we wasting time talking, she needs _help_.”

“I-”

“And where do you two think you’re going?”

“Oh god _dammit_.”

Yuri was carrying what seemed to be a sort of belt or harness with several canteens strapped to it, which he dumped on the ground. “It’s like your friend said. Sunny probably couldn’t handle all three of you at once. So I’m going to make sure she won’t _have_ to handle all three of you at once.” With that, he calmly pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at Erin. “Sit down,” he ordered.

“Right,” Erin muttered. “Plan B then.” She took a confident step forward. “I don’t think you’ve quite thought this through very thoroughly.”

Yuri’s facial expression remained static, completely unintimidated. He moved his thumb to a lever looking thing on the top of the gun that he _slowly_ moved. There was a soft click. “I said sit down.”

“You should have aimed at Viola.”

“She’s not a threat. You are.”

“Exactly why you should have aimed at her.”

Erin moved as quickly as she was capable of. She wasn’t faster than Yuri was on the trigger, but she didn’t _need_ to be. The first shot collided with her thigh _after_ it had been enveloped in ink, the projectile passing harmlessly through to the other side. Mostly harmlessly – it left a big hole that took a moment to heal, and it _hurt_ like a _motherfucker_. But it didn’t _stop_ her, and by the time he’d fired his second shot she’d grown to her maximum height and it was _far_ too small to pose any kind of real threat.

He didn’t manage to get a third shot fired before Erin’s foot collided with his chest and sent him flying into a nearby pillar. “Viola, I can handle this. Deal with Vienna’s situation.” No response. “... Viola?”

Viola was already gone. Erin sighed wearily. “Well, they _are_ sisters, I suppose.”

~~~~~~

Unfortunately, Viola wasn’t entirely sure she’d be very _useful_ against Sunny. She had a plan, sort of. She just wasn’t sure it was a _good_ plan. And, honestly, most of it was for _after_ she rescued Vienna and they dealt with Sunny. She could sneak up on her pretty easily with her powers, but after that it was all improvisation. She’d briefly stopped to take the inertial dampener out of the backpack. It was fairly hefty, so maybe she could use it as a sort of improvised bludgeon. But she’d grabbed it for a _reason_ and that reason _wasn’t_ to hit Sunny with. She didn’t want to run the risk of breaking it and not being able to enact the actual main part of her plan.

Which unfortunately didn’t leave her with much in the way of options. Maybe find a big rock? But the arena’s floor was mostly dirt, and considering that this stupid place was apparently more than two thousand years old in the real world, the _recreation_ was entirely intact so she couldn’t rely on finding some convenient rubble. For similar reasons, there didn’t seem to be any other potential improvised weapons lying about.

There was, she supposed, Sunny’s gun. The big one was obviously out of the question – Sunny was probably _using_ it. But it was also big, probably _too_ big to use in close quarters or in a situation where you needed to shoot _fast_. So she probably had a smaller gun on her somewhere, like the one Yuri had used to threaten Erin or the one Bob had used to threaten _her_ back when all this had started. The problem _there_ was that it was _on_ her. Actually getting it away from her was probably beyond Viola’s abilities. And even if it _wasn’t_ , she had no idea how to fire a gun so she’d probably be reduced to using it as an ineffective bludgeon.

So she had to go with plan D, then. The inertial dampener, a rock or rubble, and stealing Sunny’s weapon were all out of the question, and Viola was probably not capable of winning in a fistfight even factoring in Aubrey.

But _Vienna_ , on the other hand, was probably more than a match for the sniper. All Viola had to do was create an opening.

Thankfully, they weren’t particularly hard to find considering that the stands were empty aside from them and Vienna was still loudly objecting to being sat on. They weren’t even too far away from the entrance. Viola moved extremely slowly and carefully, making her way to where they were and circling around behind them.

As a result, she didn’t make it before Sunny pulled the trigger and fired at Erin. Viola’s heart caught in her throat, if only for a moment, but the giant mouse barely reacted. She was just _too big_ for bullets to be particularly effective. Sunny clicked her tongue sharply in frustration, before preparing to fire a second shot. Viola didn’t intend to give her that chance.

“If it didn’t work the first time, It’s not gonna work the second time! Now _get offa me!_ ” Sunny didn’t react, of course. Vienna didn’t expect her to. Erin was acting as a distraction, which meant that _hopefully_ Sunny’s attentions were off of Viola. But unfortunately that was hard to verify because, again, she was being sat on. Vienna wriggled slightly, though with no real intent of actually throwing Sunny off – anything more than a token effort would probably get her shot. The _actual_ goal was to keep the sniper distracted and not able to properly shoot. If she was _really_ lucky, it would be enough to make her move to steadier ground, at which point she could finish this. All she needed was for Sunny to not be on top of her anymore.

Sunny did not decide to move to steadier ground. She didn’t get the chance, because an invisible rabbit tackled her from behind, knocking her to the ground and causing her to drop her big gun. “Leave my sister alone!” Viola screamed, wrestling with the smaller woman. The two of them rolled over each other several times – which moved them both a decent distance away from the big gun.

Vienna saw her opportunity and inked up, using Edifice’s gooey texture to easily escape the handcuffs. From there it was just a matter of putting one shield around the big gun and another around one of Sunny’s arms. “Viola! Let go!”

Viola did so, jumping back slightly to put some space between herself and Sunny. That was everything that Vienna needed – she flung her arms upwards and then dropped the shield, sending both Sunny and her gun into the air and over the side of the Colosseum. “There. Problem solved.”

Vienna de-inked and then _immediately_ charged forward to hug Viola. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Viola responded, de-inking and hugging Vienna back. “You’re okay now, that’s all that matters.”

“No, no, I don’t mean I’m sorry for getting captured. I mean... About earlier.”

“Oh.”

“You just proved me wrong. You _can_ handle yourself and I was just being a neurotic jerk.”

“Don’t say that,” Viola responded, hugging her sister tighter. “You were _right_.”

“I was?”

“Sort of. I _can’t_ handle myself, not alone. _None of us_ can. You went off alone and got captured. Ursula tried to fight that Marquess guy alone and _barely_ won. And there’s no _way_ I would have survived tackling Sunny if you hadn’t been here to get rid of her.”

“I... guess,” Vienna said, not sounding entirely convinced. “Erin seems to be handling herself just fine.”

“Yeah but Erin’s twenty feet tall and is fighting the team medic. It’s not a very fair fight.”

“I guess. I just kinda don’t see what you’re getting at.”

“What I mean is that I don’t think we’re going to be able to win this if we can’t work together.”

“ _That_ I can get behind,” Vienna responded. “We’re... kind of not good at that, are we?”

“We dealt with Sunny together, didn’t we?”

“That doesn’t really count as teamwork.”

“I held her in place and you punched her. Sort of. If that’s not teamwork, what is?”

“I _guess_ , but...” Vienna sighed. “I mean, when was the last time you and I actually talked to each other? Like, just you and me, one on one?” Viola opened her mouth to respond, but Vienna interrupted. “ _Before_ coming down here, I mean.”

Viola didn’t have an answer to that.

“You’re right, though. I wouldn’t have been able to deal with this if it weren’t for you and Erin.”

“Yeah...” Viola broke the hug, turning and walking over to where she’d stashed the inertial dampener. “Speaking of teamwork, I... Think I have a plan to deal with Makoto. But we’re _all_ going to have to contribute.”

“A plan?”

“Yeah.” Viola picked up the inertial dampener. “You’re... Probably not going to like it, though.”

“I-” Vienna stopped herself. “I’m going to trust you. Just tell me what the plan is.”

“Okay,” Viola said, before taking a deep breath and then doing just that.

Vienna pursed her lips tightly. “You’re right,” she said. “I don’t like it.”

~~~~~~

It didn’t take long for Ursula to realize that she’d made a mistake. Let herself get complacent. Maybe even a bit cocky. Gotten too confident in her futuresight, and thus had forgotten that it didn’t _matter_ if she knew what was coming if she wasn’t fast enough to react to it. And, unfortunately, though she might have been able to manage that with the boost from being inked if she were at the top of her game, right now she _wasn’t_ at the top of her game. The fight with the Marquess had _already_ taken a lot out of her, and then Makoto had actively attempted to wear her out and Ursula had completely failed to notice until it was too late.

Now the fight was kicking into high gear and she absolutely needed to be at the top of her game, and here she was exhausted and sore and running purely on adrenaline. Being inked helped a _bit_ , reducing what she was fairly certain would be agony to just a dull burning ache that lurked in the background. But it didn’t change the fact that her reflexes were slowed to a crawl. Which wouldn’t have been quite as much of a problem if it weren’t for the fact even a glancing blow from Makoto felt like getting slammed by a runaway freight train.

And that one glancing blow _snowballed_. Left her dazed and stunned long enough to take a much more solid blow to the chest, and then another. Punches and kicks came flying faster than Ursula was capable of keeping track of. Scattered enough, thankfully, that Delphi seemed to be staying intact for now. But who knew how long that’d keep up? She tried to throw in some kind of counterattack, attempt to reclaim some momentum, but her punches were just as sluggish as her reflexes. She was just too _slow_ to get any hits in.

Ursula could feel her heart sinking as she realized she wasn’t going to win this.

“Y’know, I _did_ warn you,” Makoto said in between blows. “I gave you the chance to back off, take some time to recover and get patched up and shit. You can’t say this isn’t your own damn fault.” She paused her beatdown and backed off. “This isn’t any fun. Too one sided. Tell you what, I’ll let you throw the next punch. No strings attached! You can even take all the time you need to recover.”

“Host,” Delphi interjected warily. “This is clearly a trap.”

“No shit.” Ursula glared. “Lemme guess. You said you’d let me throw the next punch but you didn’t say you’d let me _land_ it?”

“You got me, you got me,” Makoto said, raising her hands defensively.

“I’m not an idiot, you know,” Ursula growled in response. Though honestly she was kind of _feeling_ like a bit of an idiot right now.

“Hey, don’t feel too bad, kid. As far as I’m concerned, being a bit stupid’s a good thing. I can respect that more than I can respect scheming assholes. You’ve just gotta figure out how to be a bit smarter about fighting people, that’s all.”

“Izzat what you’re calling it? ‘cause I’d sooner call it not fighting fair.”

“This isn’t boxing, kiddo. No rules in a street fight. I’m just trying to make this a bit more interesting, but it seems like you don’t really appreciate my efforts. So I guess that means it’s time to end it.” This was it, Ursula supposed. She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable finishing blow.

A finishing blow that didn’t come. Slowly, she opened one eye, and then the other. At first, she didn’t really see much of anything – the fight had left her vision slightly blurred, and it took a moment of concentration for things to come into focus and for her to register Makoto just _standing_ there. Her arms were spread outwards, clearly not of her own will given how she was struggling. It took _another_ few moments for the thing she was struggling against to come into proper focus, though Ursula already had an idea. Thin white lines forming a vague spherical wireframe around both of Makoto’s wrists.

“Yeah, I’d say it’s time to finish this alright,” Vienna said.

“Wh- get _off_ of me you little _shit!_ ” Makoto said, yanking an arm forward with enough force to shift one of the force fields, just a bit. Vienna stumbled forward slightly but very quickly steadied herself and pulled it back.

“Gimme a minute, I’m just a distraction.”

“Wh- oof!”

“Ursula!” Viola shouted from... somewhere. Ursula couldn’t actually see her. But, again, she had an idea. “Turn your inertial dampener on! Max power! Quickly!”

Ursula didn’t stop to think. Didn’t stop to consider that this wasn’t particularly sportsmanlike, whatever it was. Didn’t even take a second to try and figure out what the plan was. She spoke, on reflex more than consciously. “Oral code: Pillowfight.”

Viola made herself visible as she retreated to the edge of the ring, at which point Vienna dropped the shields. Both, Ursula idly noted, were inked. But she only noted that fact idly, because most of her attention was on Makoto, and on the straps over her shoulders and the bulky hunk of metal they held on her back. Ursula took a moment to feel vindicated in her preference for straps over threadlink when it came to that particular bit of kit. The soldier’s arms dropped to her sides in slow motion, moving like she was submerged in molasses. “What the fuck is this?!”

“This,” Ursula said tersely. “Is an inertial dampening field turned up to full force. It took me _years_ of practice to be able to move at _all_ when it’s turned up this high. It’s not _just_ a matter of overpowering the field. You’ve gotta know how to compensate for it and how to deal with its presence. Which you _don’t_.” Ursula took her time walking towards Makoto – she needed a moment to recover her strength, after all.

“This doesn’t seem very sportsmanlike.”

“Yeah, well, it’s like you said. Ain’t no rules in a streetfight, _bitch_.”

Ursula grabbed Makoto by the throat with her right hand – not particularly tightly. She didn’t intend to _strangle_ her opponent, just hold her in place. She _would_ have grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, but that wasn’t an option for obvious reasons. She pulled her left fist back, and then flung it forward with all her strength. “Oral code: Full Impact!” she shouted just before her punch would have hit the field and come to a stop, resulting in exactly what the oral code implied. The force of the punch _would_ have been enough to send Makoto flying, and it _did_ , just a bit. “Oral code: Pillowfight.”

Makoto continued to fly, but in slow motion. Ursula calmly circled around to her side, clenching her fists together and lifting them above her head before sending them crashing down like a hammer. “Oral code: Full Impact,” she cried just before they connected, slamming into Makoto and sending the soldier crashing down onto the ring hard enough to bounce. This time, Ursula didn’t bother to turn the inertial dampener field back on – she just stomped the woman’s chest as hard as she could before she got the chance to recover. And then again and _again_ and _again_ , boot colliding with chest over and over in a way that would have seriously injured a normal human. Ursula didn’t give a shit. Makoto had been shish kebabed by a fucking sword and had barely even _flinched_. This hadn’t been _nearly_ enough to finish things.

“Ursula, get outta the ring.”

“She’s not done yet.”

“I know, but you’ve been fucked up pretty badly. We need you back in fighting order as soon as possible.”

“Ugh,” Ursula grunted. Vienna was _right_ , but there was no _way_ this was enough to finish her off. “Gimme five minutes.”

“Don’t worry, darling,” Erin interjected. “I believe I’ve got a much more efficient way to deal with this problem.”

“Waddaya mea-” Ursula started, but didn’t finish before Erin abruptly grew twenty feet tall. “Ah. Yeah, that’d do it. Gimme a sec to get outta the blast radius.”

“Take your time, darling.”

“Oral code: Pillowfight,” Ursula said, ensuring that Makoto wouldn’t be going anywhere while she cleared her way out of the ring. Once Erin was satisfied that there was no risk of crushing her packmates, she turned around, facing away from the ring. And then she _jumped_. Not particularly high – she didn’t _need_ to jump particularly high. The important thing was the slight backwards angle of the jump and the fact that she lifted her legs in the air as she did it.

“Oral code: Full Impact.”

Makoto stared upwards. “Son of a _bitch_ ,” was the last thing she managed to say before Erin’s ass collided with the boxing ring with enough force to completely demolish it and to leave a mousebutt shaped crater in the arena’s dirt floor.

“And that’s _that_ dealt with. I’m going to stay here for a moment to make absolutely certain she’s out of the fight.”

“Good idea. What about the sniper?”

“Me and Viola dealt with her,” Vienna said. “I threw her out of the arena and I threw her gun in a different direction to make absolutely sure she was out of the fight.”

“What about medic dude?”

“He gave up,” Erin said with a shrug. “He said that I was, and I quote, significantly above his paygrade. Oh, yes, speaking of which, we’re no longer running low on water.”

“Nice.” Satisfied that they were no longer in any danger, Ursula collapsed backwards, de-inking and splaying on the ground. “I’m gonna pass out for a hundred years if that’s okay with y’all.”

“Don’t rest just yet,” Erin said. “Have something to eat and some water first.”

“Fair enough. I, uh, don’t think I’m gonna be able to get up anytime soon, though.”

“Here, let me help you.” Viola quickly rushed over to Ursula’s side and did just that, pulling the larger girl into a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

“Better’n I would be if you guys hadn’t interfered. Thanks.”

“It was Viola’s idea,” Vienna said, taking up a spot on Ursula’s other side.

“No foolin’? Well, hey, it fuckin’ worked out _great_. Good job, Viola.”

“I just, um. I just figured we’d do better if we teamed up. You know?”

“Clearly you figured right. Maybe there’s something to this whole havin’ a functional relationship thing.”

“Well, ideally after we get out of here we’re not going to have much further need to fight,” Erin said. After a moment’s thought, she continued, “But I suppose it _is_ nice to get along again. It’s... been a while.”

“There _is_ still Echelon,” Vienna said. “I’d rather _not_ have to fight her, but I don’t think we should ignore the reality that we might not get a choice in the matter.”

“Yeah...” Viola didn’t really like thinking about it, but unfortunately Vienna was right. No matter how this ended up turning out, the only way she could foresee this ending _without_ fighting Echelon was if Ami beat them and launched the nuclear bombs, or if _Osoth_ beat _Echelon_ before they managed to get out of Ami’s game. “I guess we’ll just have to take things as they come.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not fighting _anyone_ any time soon,” Ursula said. “I can’t _move_.”

“We’ve still got time left,” Vienna said. “Hell, we’ve probably got more time than we did _before_ we got a supply of water.”

“Speaking of which, could I have some water? I literally can’t remember the last time I drank anything.”

“Oh, shoot,” Erin muttered. “I didn’t think to bring them.”

“I’ll go get them,” Viola volunteered, pulling away from Ursula’s side. “It’s not that far.”

“Don’t forget about your leg,” Vienna said. “I’ll go.”

“We can both go.”

“You can barely stand straight. It’s _fine_ , I’m in the best shape of all of us.”

“Strictly speaking, I would probably be in the best shape of any of us right now, darling,” Erin said.

“Yeah, but we need you to keep Makoto in place.” Vienna stood up. “It’s _fine_ , I can carry some water bottles on my own. You all just stay here.” With that, she turned to head towards where the canteens had been left.

And immediately froze up.

“Bravo!” Bob said with an insufferable smirk, slowly clapping his hands. “Impressive work. _Damn_ impressive work! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone beat Makoto in a straight up fight in the entire time I’ve known her. And I’ve known her for a _very_ long time.”

“What do you want,” Vienna spat, immediately re-inking.

“Do you want me to squash him?”

“Hey, hey, easy girls, I ain’t here for a fight,” he said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “If y’all can beat Makoto, I don’t stand a chance. I’m just here to collect my men.” He shrugged. “If y’wanna leave, we won’t stop you. Don’t think that means you’re off’a the hook, of course. Still got Ami to deal with. I don’t think you’ll even be able to _find_ the exit if she doesn’t want you to.”

The tension was thick enough that cutting it would have been difficult. The air hung heavy over everyone gathered, only broken when Bob gestured with his head at Erin. “Wouldja mind gettin’ off of her so I can get her out of here?”

“R-right,” Erin muttered, pulling herself upright and shrinking down at the same time.

“Good girl,” Bob said, making his way over to the crater where Makoto’s mostly wrecked body lay. “Gimme a minute and we’ll be outta y’all’s hair.”

Viola frowned, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. There was something nagging her at the back of her mind. Something _important_ , though she wasn’t entirely sure what.

“... Wait.”

She had spoken entirely on instinct. Everyone turned to look at her with expressions of complete bafflement on their faces, as though wondering what the fuck she was thinking – a question she wasn’t sure she could answer herself. Even Bob seemed caught off guard, raising an eyebrow. But somehow this felt right. This felt like the thing to do. Slowly, something was coalescing in the small rabbit’s brain. A plan was formulating.

She just had to enact it.


	13. Act 13 - The Prisoner's Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one obstacle remains between Viola's pack and freedom. But it's not an obstacle they're going to be able to get past with the tactics they've used thus far. And even if they do manage to get past that, the specter of Echelon and Osoth looms large over everything.
> 
> One way or another, things are coming to an end.

Viola had never really expected to amount to much. It was kind of a depressing thought, but it was _true_. She wasn’t particularly _good_ at anything. Her one real talent was sleight of hand, and most people just found it kind of creepy. Maybe someone with more raw charisma could have spun it into a successful career in entertainment. But not only did Viola _not_ have _any_ raw charisma to speak of, she absolutely couldn’t _stand_ being the centre of attention.

And here she was, the centre of attention. Every eye was on _her_ , and suddenly whatever it was that possessed her to speak up in the first place decided now was a good time to vanish entirely. She opened her mouth to say something, _anything_ , but all that came out was a strangled croaking noise.

“Y’okay, kid?” Bob, of all people, was the one who spoke up first.

“I- um.”

“Hey, it’s okay, ‘s been a _busy_ day. I Imagine y’all’ve had more excitement in the past couple ‘a hours than in the entire rest of your life _combined_.”

“R-right,” Viola muttered, still attempting to muster the courage to actually say something meaningful and failing miserably.

“Well, if that’s everythin’, I’ve _really_ got places to be. Ami’s prolly gonna wanna have words with me over this whole debacle an’ I’ve gotta figure out where the fuck Sunny landed. _Nice_ throw, by the way.”

“Uh, thanks?” Vienna said.

With that, Bob once again turned to leave. This was it, Viola realized. Her last chance. She wasn’t sure how she knew this, but somehow she _did_. If she just let him leave now, they were going to fail. Hell, they were probably going to _die_ here, alone underground. They’d spent this entire time following the pace that Ami dictated, and what had it gotten them? A fight a day, every day, without fail. Not even _real_ fights. Wasting their time and energy on opponents they were ultimately guaranteed to win against. And every time they _had_ gotten into a real fight against the soldiers, they’d barely survived. The only real _victories_ they’d gotten hadn’t been through skill, but sheer dumb luck.

Though, now that Viola thought of it, that wasn’t really entirely true. They’d escaped the soldiers in the first place by catching them off guard with Vienna’s superpowers. Viola had escaped Makoto by bluffing like hell. They wouldn’t have been able to beat Makoto _this_ time without the twins sneaking up on Sunny, and they’d actually won the fight by ganging up on her when she was expecting a one-on-one duel.

The common thread in all their victories wasn’t teamwork, though that had certainly helped with the last few fights. But no, the real common thread was _fighting dirty_.

And, just like that, the plan coalesced.

“Wait,” Viola said again, more firmly this time.

“Y’all still got somethin’ to say, kiddo?”

“Poker. You and me. Here. Now.”

Once again, Bob raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Now seems like a _weird_ time for a friendly card game.”

Viola shook her head resolutely. “Not friendly. There’s going to be stakes this time.”

“Oh?”

“If you win, th-then this is it. We stop fighting back, stop participating in Ami’s game. Wait out the rest of it without doing anything.”

“What?!”

“ _Absolutely_ unacceptable!”

“Viola, are you forgetting about the nukes or something?!”

Viola’s pack was, understandably, outraged. Viola didn’t care. She had no intentions of following through with that particular promise. Bob raised a hand, and waited for the other three girls to get the hint and quiet down. “Interestin’. And what about if _y’all_ win?”

“Then the game is over.”

“Oh? And what exactly do y’all mean by that?”

“I mean that _when_ I win, you’ve got to take us directly to Ami.”

There was a deafening silence. Viola wasn’t sure how long it lasted, probably a good few minutes. No one seemed able to say anything, just standing in silence as Viola glared defiantly at Bob. To her credit, she only shook in abject terror a _little_ bit, and at least _part_ of that was her leg injury.

Slowly, a big, eager _grin_ spread across the soldier’s face. “ _Well_ then. When y’put it like _that_ , how can I refuse? Ah, one condition though.”

“Depends on the condition.”

“I ain’t takin’ y’all to Ami right away. Not until you’ve at _least_ gotten some rest and some medical attention. Maybe some paste.”

Viola’s expression soured. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d really rather not have any paste.”

“It’s good for ya’.”

“I’m not eating any more paste.”

“Well, suit yourself,” Bob replied with a shrug. “But the rest of the condition stands.”

“Yeah, uh, I’m _really_ not up to going to fight Ami literally right now,” Ursula interjected.

“Viola,” Aubrey’s voice interjected in Viola’s head. “It would be extremely wise to take the time to recuperate the prana we used in this fight before challenging Ami directly. _Especially_ if we intend to circumvent the game. I don’t predict that she’ll be very happy about that.”

“... Fine,” Viola said.

“Then let’s get started on that.”

“No.”

“You’re _gonna_ be taking a break regardless of who wins.”

“I don’t care.”

“Better to get the rest and food and medical attention in _now_ rather than later.”

“ _I don’t care_ ,” Viola repeated firmly. “We’re doing this now or else Erin’s going to squash.”

Bob raised his hands defensively. “Okay, okay, fine! We’re doin’ this now! I ain’t into gettin’ squished by the 50 foot mouse’s ass.”

“Twenty at most,” Erin snapped.

“Oh, well, that’s a different story entirely.”

Bob gently placed Makoto’s body back on the ground. It wasn’t clear if she was still alive – though, on the other hand, Viola wasn’t entirely sure it _mattered_ if she was still alive. Apparently her brain wasn’t even in her body? But frankly, Viola didn’t really care. She had other, bigger concerns right now.

Bob pulled some sort of phone out of one of the pouches and pressed a large button on the side. “Yo, Ovcharenko. Get your ass over here and see to Tanaka, over. What? No, the mouse isn’t going to kick you again, over. I don’t care, I need you to do your damn job, over and out. God dammit.” He roughly shoved the communication device, whatever it was exactly, back into the pouch. It wasn’t clear why he _needed_ a communication device when he was a cyborg, but no one felt like asking for details. “So!” he said, turning back to Viola and clapping his hands together. “We’re gonna hafta lay down a couple’a ground rules. No cheatin’, obviously. Either of us gets caught, that’s a forfeit.”

“Alright,” Viola responded.

“Speakin’ of which, you ain’t shufflin’. I’ve seen you do that card magic shit and I don’t trust you.”

“Fine,” Viola responded a little more tersely. That was probably going to be a problem. “But if I’m not shuffling, neither are you.”

“I toldja before that I never had the patience to figure out that sleight of hand bullshit.”

“I don’t care. You’re a cyborg, you’ve probably got better hand-eye coordination than me.”

“Fine. Who’s shuffling then.”

“Ursula.”

“Wait, what?” Ursula said. “Why me?”

“You’ll see,” Viola replied, tossing the deck in Ursula’s direction.

“Wh- ack!” Ursula managed to completely fail to catch the deck. The box collided with her face, bouncing off and into her lap. “Ow, gimme some warning next time, geeze,” she muttered sullenly, opening the box and carefully removing the deck proper.

“Are... you _entirely_ sure about this, darling?” Erin said, as diplomatically as she was capable of. “You _do_ recall what happened the last time we let Ursula shuffle.”

“Exactly,” Viola replied.

“Guys, it was _one time_. Gimme some credit, I’m not _that_ bad at thi-oops.”

“Annnnnd there we go.”

Bob frowned. “Okay, point taken. New plan; you can shuffle, then she cuts the deck.”

“Look this was a fluke, I can do this,” Ursula replied tersely as she gathered the cards off of the ground.

“You could probably cut the deck,” Viola said.

“Hey!”

“I figure that we can both agree that no attempt at fancy shufflin’ tricks could survive her cuttin’ the deck.”

“I’m _right here_.”

“Alright, fine,” Viola responded, pointedly ignoring Ursula’s grumbling. Things were going according to plan, so far at least. There were a few ways she could handle this next part. The easiest way would be to palm a good hand while shuffling, but it was also the most obvious. Switching whatever she was dealt out for her palmed hand would also be hard to do without being noticed. Playing it safe was a tempting option, because she _needed_ to win this, but if she got _caught_ cheating then that was it. It didn’t matter if she guaranteed a winning hand if he noticed her doing so and she got disqualified. So then she just needed to ensure she didn’t get caught.

A lot of that was going to be dependent on Ursula. “She gets to deal, too.”

“I can agree to that.”

“ _Guys I’m right here_.”

“Any other conditions?”

“No wild cards. No ties. We’re goin’ until one of us gets a _proper_ winnin’ hand. That also means no high cards. You gotta at _least_ get a pair to win. And no foldin’, either. If ya’ can’t get a winnin’ hand, then that’s tough fuckin’ luck. Can’t discard more’n three cards at a time, but since we’re only gonna be doin’ the one hand an’ there’s only two of us so no real danger of depletin’ the deck, we’re gonna do up ta’ three rounds of discardin’ and replacin’.”

“Alright.”

“That’s it. Get to shufflin’.”

Viola nodded wordlessly. She made a point of not showing off with her shuffling. No flashy flourishes, nothing fancy. Just a simple riffle shuffle. The more flashy the technique she used, the more likely it was that Bob would pay closer attention to what she was doing, and the more likely it was that he’d notice what was actually going on. His cybernetically enhanced vision could easily catch her attempting anything tricky. And she was going to _have_ to attempt something tricky if she wanted to ensure she won this. Layers of deception, even – not only did she need to ensure _she_ got a _winning_ hand, she needed just as much to ensure that Bob _didn’t_ get a winning hand. It would be difficult, but she was fairly confident she could manage it. She might have lacked experience at cheating at poker, but she had _plenty_ of experience shuffling cards. If she _really_ wanted to ensure the cards ended up in a certain order, she could do that. The rest was making it look like she wasn’t cheating, which amounted to ensuring that she discarded some cards while still keeping a winning hand.

That would probably be the _easiest_ part. Viola had some new tricks up her sleeve, after all.

“Alright, alright, I’m- what the _fuck_ are you doing?” Yuri said as he arrived.

“Shut up ‘n tend to Makoto. This is important.”

“Right. Whatever.” The medic shrugged and began to tend to Makoto’s still motionless body. “God dammit, did she tear off her shirt _again?_ ”

Bob rolled his eyes. “I keep tellin’ her how hard it is to get replacement bodysuits but she just keeps doin’ it.”

“Is this thorough enough for your standards?” Viola asked.

“One more riffle.”

“Right.” Viola had already made sure that most of the high ranking cards that could potentially tie her hand were at the top of the deck. That way, no matter how Ursula elected to cut it, odds were there wouldn’t be a winning hand anywhere in the deck that Bob was likely to get to. More shuffling could potentially be problematic, but luckily Bob had asked her to riffle the deck. It would take a _little_ misdirection, but she was good enough at handling cards that she could make it _look_ like she was doing a riffle shuffle without actually changing the order of the cards in the slightest – assuming Bob didn’t see through that.

If he _did_ see through it, he didn’t say anything, which probably meant he didn’t. Viola handed the deck to Ursula. “Cut it,” she ordered.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what I’m doing.” Viola didn’t need her to cut the deck at any specific point this time, so this was probably the safest part of the plan.

“Now deal. One to me, one to him, repeat until we’ve got five cards.”

“An’ try not to drop any.”

“Man, _fuck_ you,” Ursula grumbled, giving Bob a dirty look before beginning to deal. She awkwardly picked a card up and placed it in front of Viola before repeating the process with Bob. It was clumsy and time consuming, but also it was _safe_. If the soldier’s suspicions hadn’t been raised yet, then Ursula’s lack of skill meant they _wouldn’t_ be.

“Y’know, it ain’t too late t’just give up, kid.”

“I’m not giving up.”

“You _should_. I ain’t kiddin’ when I say it’s in your best interests.”

“My friends and I _are_ going home. You’re not convincing me otherwise.”

“You _would_ go- ugh,” Bob groaned, his tone exasperated. “Look. Suppose you manage to win this little card game an’ we lead you over to the main facility. How exactly do y’all think she’s gonna take that? Well?”

“I don’t care how she takes it.”

“Kid, this right here is pushin’ the limits as it is and is prolly gonna piss her the fuck off. If you actually go _through_ with cheatin’? She’s gonna kill ya’. Hell, that’s the _best_ case scenario. Worst case, she’ll make you _wish_ you were dead.”

“We can handle it.”

“No, you _can’t_. You mighta’ been able to win against Ami up to now, but that’s ‘cause she _wants_ you to win. If you get her to actually try, she’ll just keep goin’ and _goin_ ’ forever until you’re dead.”

“How would she even _know_ about this?”

“Do y’all _seriously_ think she can’t see ‘n hear everythin’ we do and say? If you’re gonna cheat, you gotta divide her attention or do things low-key, and y’all’ve not been great at doin’ either. Not intentionally at least.”

Viola frowned, carefully looking at her hand. It didn’t _actually_ matter what cards she had, of course, but she needed to make it _look_ like it _did_. Likewise, she needed to discard cards – there was nothing more suspicious than a card magician drawing a winning hand directly from the deck. “Discarding two. Whatever she throws at us, we can handle.”

“Not if you keep playin’ the way you’ve been, kiddo,” Bob retorted. “Discardin’ three.”

“Ursula, that means you need to deal two cards to me and then three to him, so we both have five cards.

“Right, gotcha.”

“The point I’m makin’ is that you don’t stand a chance against Ami. Not with the way your kind thinks.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like it means. Tell me, suppose y’all _do_ manage to make it to the main facility. What then? How’re you gonna stop Ami.”

Viola frowned. “I... Haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Well, lemme tell you. Ami’s not gonna let up. Once you’ve pissed her off, she’s gonna go all out. No more holdin’ back or fightin’ fair. Best case, she kills you. Worst case, she cuts your brains out an’ sticks ‘em in jars an’ _boom_. Say goodbye to any chance of seein’ mommy and daddy again. If you want outta here and you’re _dead set_ on facin’ Ami head on, the only way you’re gonna win is if you fight to kill.”

Viola’s heart caught in her throat. “... Discarding one.”

“You could do it, too. Wouldn’t be too hard. Just smash up Ami’s projectors an’ then smash up everythin’ that looks important. But you won’t. Discardin’ two.”

Viola bit her lip nervously. “We... we can get out of here without killing her.”

“You can _try_ , but it’ll just get _y’all_ killed.”

“I’m not murdering her,” Viola said firmly.

“Ain’t murder if she’s not human.”

“It’s like you said, people are people.”

“That’s a really cute sentiment, kiddo, but Ami ain’t a person and anyway that ain’t what I meant by that.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a human or a cyborg or a computer or an alien goo thing. What matters is how you _think_. Ami clearly thinks like a person. And... if she _does_ , then I think I can convince her to let us go.”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that. In the meantime, _I’m_ gonna keep on workin’ towards actually getting you outta here alive an’ mostly unharmed.”

“Why do you care so much about our wellbeing anyway?”

Bob tightened his lips for a moment. “I’m a soldier, kid. Just ‘cause the US ain’t existed for centuries, that fact ain’t gonna change. Protectin’ people’s in my job description.”

“Last I checked, soldiers kill people,” Ursula interjected. “That’s, like, the _opposite_ of killing.”

“Soldiers kill _soldiers_ , kid. Dyin’s a part ‘a the job. What _ain’t_ a part of the job is slaughtering unarmed non-combatants.”

“You sure didn’t seem to mind that we’re unarmed non-combatants when you shot Erin’s arm off.”

“Which wouldn’t’a turned out _nearly_ as badly for y’all if you’d just stayed _put_.”

“Discarding one.”

“Discardin’ three. Lemme tell you a story, kid,” Bob said tersely. “Once upon a time there was a little boy. His momma was black and his daddy was white and he lived in the deep south. Now, y’all obviously don’t got any kinda context for what that means, but bein’ mixed race? _Especially_ those two races, in _that_ part’a America? Well, it’d prolly have been worse if he were a decade or two older, things’d definitely improved over time. But it still didn’t win him any favours with the locals, if you get my meaning. Didn’t have many friends, _did_ have a lotta bullies. Somehow, though, in spite ‘a all that, he managed to grow up to be a pretty well adjusted kid, if’n I do say so myself.”

“I know you’re talking about yourself.”

“Don’t interrupt, kid. Now, this kid didn’t let the bullyin’ get to him the way some other people did. But it was still lonely, y’know? There was one thing, though. One thing that kept him goin’. And that thing was Cap’n Comet.” A wistful smile spread across Bob’s face. “The thing ‘bout Cap’n Comet was that he wasn’t just a comic book character. He was a real, honest-to-god Superhero. Saved the world ‘n everything, all while not really bein’ much older than the boy. And yeah, one day he died, but the kid was too young to realize that was what happened. He genuinely bought into the idea that Cap’n Comet was just frozen until he needed t’be unfrozen again. Took him _years_ to realize that wasn’t gonna happen, _waaaay_ later in the story. All he knew when he was a kid was that he wanted to be just like Cap’n Comet. Of course, that was easier said than done. The boy didn’t have any superpowers. But what he _did_ have was a military daddy. He was good at discipline, good at takin’ orders, decently physically fit. So after high school he enlisted. Figured bein’ a soldier’d be a good way to help people. Make a real difference in the world, y’know?”

Slowly, Bob’s wistful smile evaporated into something much colder. “Here’s somethin’ that the boy learned _real_ fuckin’ quickly. Most ‘a the time, wars ain’t black and white. Ain’t no good guys or bad guys. An’ even when your _country’s_ fightin’ against Hitler, _you’re_ just fightin’ against some kid named Hans who misses his momma _real_ bad. And you miss _your_ momma real bad too, but you can’t take the time to feel sorry for him, ‘cause if you _do_ he’ll put a bullet in your brain. An’ you can’t stop fightin’, ‘cause your country _really_ don’t look kindly on people who decide they don’t wanna be soldiers no more. Even if you go home when you’re supposed to, ain’t no place for a former marine in civilian life. Like I said, people’re people. Everyone’s the same. All the civilians just wanna live their lives without thinkin’ about the bigger picture. All the soldiers are just lonely outcasts who couldn’t fit in anywhere else or naive children who thought it was a good way to help protect their country or just psychos who wanted to be able to shoot other human beings. And all the people in charge are power hungry bastards who just want _control_. It’s all the same, everywhere, regardless of whose side you’re on. Ain’t no good guys, ain’t no bad guys. Just _people_. An’ lemme tell you somethin’, if your kind really _have_ moved beyond all’a that? Y’ain’t people, not anymore. You can claim you’re human all you want, but you-”

“Royal flush.”

Bob stopped, his expression collapsing in on itself into a complete unreadable blank. “Come again?” he said, after several minutes of silence.

“Royal flush,” Viola repeated, laying her cards on the table – the ten, jack, king, queen, and ace of spades. “I win. Fuck you.”

Bob stared blankly at the cards, laid out neatly on the ground. What he didn’t realize was that wasn’t actually Viola’s hand – she had removed those cards from the deck while shuffling and used Aubrey’s power to turn them invisible. Then, when the time came to lay out her hand, she just switched which hand was visible and which one wasn’t. Complicated, but clean. Bob clearly hadn’t caught her, or else he wouldn’t be quite so baffled.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face. Not the reaction Viola had expected. “Well. God damn if that ain’t the best possible hand. Congratulations, kid. Ya’ beat me.” He slowly pulled himself upright. “Right then, y’all get that rest ya’ promised me you’d get. I need to deal with my men, but I’ll be back for y’all tomorrow. Make sure you’re ready, because Ami ain’t gonna hold back. And hey, a little piece of advice from someone with a lot more experience than you?”

“I don’t need your advice,” Viola hissed. Bob continued, ignoring the hostile response.

“It’s never too late to run, kid. Don’t feel bad if y’gotta retreat and regroup.”

“That’s terrible advice,” Viola said, unimpressed. “Where would we even run _to_ , this whole place is under Ami’s control.”

Bob smirked as he and Yuri picked Makoto up, slinging her arms over their shoulders. “You’re a smart kid, figure it out yourself. I can’t come up with the _entire_ plan ‘a action for ya’.” With that, the soldiers turned and left, leaving Viola and her pack alone in the Colosseum.

“Yo what the fuck just happened?”

“I, uh. I think we just won?”

“I think _Viola_ just won, darling,” Erin corrected. “We’re just along for the ride.” She turned her attention to Viola, who was still sitting on the ground, quivering, and gently placed her hands on the smaller rabbit’s shoulders. “Are you alright, darling?”

“No.”

“That’s fine. Come on, let’s get you something to eat and something to drink.”

“I, uh, I should probably go get the water bottles,” Vienna said awkwardly.

“I’ll help clean up the deck,” Ursula interjected. “Then, um, I guess we take some time to rest up?”

“I don’t know about you all, but I could certainly _use_ the rest.”

“Yeah, sounds like a plan. I’ll be back in a second.” Vienna turned and headed in the direction the soldiers had gone. She didn’t _intend_ to spy on them, honestly. They just happened to have gone in the same direction as where the water bottles were.

But, well, given the opportunity, she couldn’t help but take it.

“What the _fuck_ are you _thinking?_ ” Makoto hissed. “We _absolutely_ can’t lead those kids to Ami, she’ll _kill_ them!”

“Don’t got a choice. Kid won. Those were the terms.”

“They’re terrible terms! Why did you even agree to them in the first place!”

“I don’t know about you, but after what they did to you just now?” Yuri interjected. “I don’t want to get on their bad side by promising to help them and then going back on it. Especially not after she won fair and square.”

“It doesn’t matter how fair and square it was-”

“It wasn’t.”

“... What?”

“It wasn’t fair and square,” Bob said succinctly. “Kid _cheated_ like a _motherfucker_ the whole time. Passed the test with flyin’ colours.”

There was a brief period of silence. “You’re serious?”

“Yep. Ain’t ever been more proud in my whole life. She’s got potential, that one. Guess I underestimated these post splicers.”

“You really think she can handle Ami?”

“I _know_ she can handle Ami. She’s just gonna need a little pushin’ in the right direction.”

Vienna frowned as the soldiers moved out of hearing range. Slowly, she picked up the water bottles, and then turned and headed back to where the rest of her pack was waiting.

She did not say anything about what she’d overheard to the others.

~~~~~~

“We need a plan.” Vienna felt stupid saying it. But no one else was speaking up. Even if she didn’t actually have a plan in _mind_ , she felt the need to say _something_. “We can’t just bumble blindly into this or we’ll _absolutely_ get killed.”

“That may well be,” Erin replied. “But coming up with a plan is going to be difficult if we don’t know what we’re up against.”

“And we _can’t_ know what we’re up against because it could be _anything_ ,” Vienna finished, slumping backwards against a wall.

“What _I’d_ like to know is why we couldn’t have done this _before_ going to sleep,” Ursula grumbled. “Like, I’m fucking _exhausted_. Can I not _just this once_ get a normal fucking night’s sleep?” The dreamscape had taken the form of a vague approximation of Math class for some reason. None of the girls really knew why, but none was going to complain, either – at least it meant there were real chairs and they weren’t stuck sitting in the dirt. Vienna had never expected to be quite so glad to see a desk in her life. The girls had shifted the desks around to form a rough circle with eight chairs. One for each girl plus another four for their inklings, with the remainder of the desks shoved out of the way. It was impromptu, but it was better than nothing.

“No,” Vienna replied immediately. “You heard what Bob said. Ami can see and hear _everything_. If we planned while we were _awake_ , then she’d _know our plan_.”

“Ugh,” Ursula grumbled.

“This is the safest way to plan,” Vienna said with a shrug. “We’ll try to make it quick, at least. It’s in everyone’s best interests for you to be in the best possible condition.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna be an option,” Ursula said, somewhat reluctantly. “I... pushed myself pretty hard today. A few hours of naptime’s not gonna be enough to bounce back.”

“So what you’re saying is that we’re down the one member of our group who can actually fight,” Erin said with a weary sigh. “That’s just _lovely_.”

“We’re just gonna to have to work around that.”

“Sorry about that,” Ursula muttered.

“It’s fine. We’re just gonna have to work around it,” Vienna repeated, as if she were trying to convince herself that it was something that _could_ be worked around.

“Well, the good news is that Vienna and myself can at least use our superpowers to compensate for a lack of fighting prowess.”

“What about Viola, though?” Ursula asked. Vienna cringed slightly.

“I can protect Viola well enough,” Aubrey interjected.

“I’ll take your word on that one,” Vienna replied, clearly unconvinced.

“Hey, speakin’ of which, do any of the Inklings have anything to add?”

Delphi nodded, before standing up from her chair and stepping forward into the centre of the circle. “Unfortunately, as Erin has pointed out, we don’t know enough about Ami’s facility proper or what exactly she’s capable of when going all out to plan for any specifics. But what we _can_ do is come up with some basic tactics that could apply to any situation.”

“Okay, cool. Do you _have_ any basic tactics to suggest?”

“Hm.”

“I’ll take that as a no, then.”

“Shut up, host, I’m thinking.” Delphi frowned, before slowly turning to face Viola. “You. Fantoma’s host. You’ve been awfully quiet so far.”

“O-oh. Um, sorry.”

“You seem to be the least terrible strategist of the group. And besides, this whole situation is technically your fault.”

“ _Hey!_ ” Vienna interjected angrily. She _almost_ lurched upright, but Edifice quickly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

“Well...” Viola said, after a moment of silent thought. “I think our first priority should be to, um. T-to focus on Ami’s limitations.” Delphi nodded silently, before gesturing for Viola to go on. “Like, um. L-like for instance, she’s a computer, right? And so she might be smarter than a normal person, but computers can still only do so many things at once. If you open too many programs, especially if they’re _intensive_ programs, it’ll start having trouble running them all at once. S-so, maybe we should split our efforts up. Instead of coming at her as a group, attack from multiple angles. Divide her attention as much as possible. Maybe it’ll slow her down, a-and maybe that’ll create an opening for me or Ursula or both of us to find a way to turn off her projectors.”

“I don’t know about that, darling. It takes a lot more than just three separate programs running at once for my PET to start having problems. And Ami seems... quite a bit more advanced than a PET.”

“I can take on a couple enemies at once,” Vienna said. “And you’re big, you can probably deal with a couple of dudes at once, too. Or one really big dude.”

“Um. Also,” Viola continued. “Ami’s not _just_ a computer. She’s got _emotions_. I bet we can use that against her. Like, um. Like how when Ursula fought that Marquess guy. At first she was angry and so she didn’t fight as well as she could. But then when she calmed down she fought better. And, um. Ami’s probably already going to be mad anyway s-so maybe we can take advantage of that.”

“I... Don’t know if that’s the best plan, darling.” Erin shuffled uncomfortably. “Getting Ami angrier than she already is seems to me like it will more likely make her fight _harder_ rather than _sloppier_.”

“Mnf,” Viola grunted. “You’re right about that, but... What if _we_ aren’t the ones she’s mad at?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well. Um. It’s really the soldiers who are breaking the rules here, right? They’re the ones taking us straight to the end of the game. So, um. S-so maybe we can start a fight between them.”

“You think that’d work?”

“These are all just ideas,” Viola said. “Um, I think we’re going to end up mostly having to improvise.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Delphi said. “Which is unfortunately the best we can hope for right now.”

“Does anyone else have anything to add?” Ursula said. “No? Good. I’m going the fuck to sleep.”

“Host, you’re already asleep.”

“I’m _dreaming_ , but if I’m still having to think and shit then I might as well just be awake.”

“That’s _not how it works!_ ”

“That is absolutely how it works, I’m obviously not properly asleep or I wouldn’t be this coherent and-”

“Listen here you-”

The two continued bickering even as they slowly faded from view as they retreated from the shared dream. “Well, I guess that means we’re done for the night?” Erin said with a shrug.

“I guess so,” Vienna replied. “You guys should also probably head off. Ursula’s got a point, regardless of what Delphi says. Staying properly conscious all night, even if we’re technically asleep, can’t _possibly_ be as properly restful as actually turning our brains off like we’re supposed to.”

“Actually, I think I’ll stay here for now.” Erin shrugged again, shifting awkwardly in her chair. “My normal dreams... typically aren’t very restful anyway.”

“That’s fair. Honestly mine probably aren’t much better.”

“That would be my fault,” said Edifice. “Sorry about that.”

“Ehhhhh it’s fine. Just... try not to do it anymore, okay?”

“I can’t promise I won’t show up in your dreams anymore, but I can at least promise I will try my best not to make them unpleasant.”

“Good enough.”

“That said, I suppose it’s quite a ways until morning, regardless of how lucid our dreams are.” Erin sighed, slumping backwards into her chair. “God I hope this works. I want so badly to be able to sleep in my own bed again. Or _any_ bed.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve actually gotten to sleep in my own god damn bed since before the invasion started.”

“I suppose that’s partially my fault.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m the one who needed to get it through her head that no one but me cares about my anatomical weirdness.”

“Well,” Erin said after a moment of awkward silence. “If you ever wish to experiment further, I’m willing to help out with that. I’m sure the same applies to Ursula and Viola.”

“Okay.”

“Though, ah, probably not right now.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“And I promise that otherwise we won’t push you.”

“Erin it’s okay,” Vienna said, rolling her eyes slightly. “We can deal with all that awkwardness _after_ we deal with the more pressing matter of saving the world. Twice.”

“Twice?”

“First we gotta deal with Ami. Then we gotta deal with the alien invasion.”

“Oh. Right.” Erin sighed. “I’ll be honest, I was trying not to think too hard about that last part.”

“Fair enough.” Honestly, Vienna also didn’t particularly want to focus on the cold reality that the only way to resolve the alien invasion with minimal casualties was probably going to involve fighting Echelon. Vienna’s mind wandered back to the broadcast. Whoever Echelon’s host was, she was young. Younger than them, that was certain. Probably fifteen or sixteen, _maybe_ seventeen at the most. Just a kid. Way too young to die. Hopefully things wouldn’t come to that, but... Well, Vienna could only muster so much optimism.

“Let’s lighten the mood,” Titania interjected. She’d been quiet so far – likely she’d just not had anything to say. Really, _none_ of the Inklings had spoken up much (aside from Delphi, who seemed to love the sound of her own voice.)

“Focusing on doom and gloom is counterproductive,” Edifice added. “We need to be as ready as possible for tomorrow. Letting ourselves get stressed out when we’re supposed to be resting won’t help in that regard.”

“Yeah... Yeah, you’re right. I think maybe I’ll go to sleep after all. I’m _especially_ gonna need as much rest as possible if the plan is for me to do most of the fighting.”

“Right...” Viola muttered. “Hey, uh. Are- are you sure you’re okay with being a distraction?”

“Do we have another option?” Vienna replied with a shrug. “Ursula’s not up to fight, and we’ve already committed to not going with the ‘convince Ami we’re boring by not doing anything’ plan.”

“Besides,” Erin interjected. “It’s not like she’s going to be alone. I fully intend to do my fair share of the heavy lifting. I may not be much of a fighter, but I can make up for it by being very large. And there’s also the soldiers.”

“I don’t know...” Viola said, clearly not convinced. “I just... Something about this feels off. Like there’s something we should have accounted for but we’re not accounting for it.”

Vienna placed a hand on Viola’s shoulder. “You just need to focus on doing your part. Get into Ami’s facility and then turn her projectors off while we’ve got her distracted. Easy.”

“Right. Easy.” Viola’s tone of voice made it clear she didn’t think it would be easy at all.

“Hey, don’t worry. This is your plan, remember. You just need to have more confidence that it’s a good one.”

“We need to try and stay optimistic,” Erin added. “It’s not a bad idea to be ready for things to go wrong, but that’s not the same thing as aimlessly dwelling on the _possibility_ they _might_ go wrong.”

“I guess...” Viola wasn’t terribly convinced, but she couldn’t think up any counterarguments. Which probably proved Erin’s point.

Still, even as Erin and Vienna said their goodnights and slowly faded away into their own dreams, she couldn’t help but dwell on one particular thing that had been said. “This is my plan,” she muttered to herself. “That means that if anything goes wrong, it’s _my_ fault.”

“Mm,” Aubrey grunted. “If I may give you a bit of advice. Not as Aubrey but as Fantoma.”

“I don’t think I want advice from Fantoma,” Viola replied.

“I understand why you’d think that, but as Fantoma I have a lot of experience as a leader. Don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest you allow your friends to die as sacrificial pawns.”

“Okay...” Once again, Viola was clearly unconvinced. But she figured that she didn’t have to _take_ any advice Fantoma might have to give.

“No plan is perfect,” Fantoma said, her voice terse and cold. None of Aubrey’s soft gentility. “Something _will_ go wrong. Rather than dwelling on self-doubt and assigning blame, you need to be ready for that fact. And, more importantly, you need to trust in your friends. If something goes wrong, then we will _all_ need to improvise.”

“So what you’re saying is that if they die it’s their own fault.”

“I’m saying that if you trust their abilities, then you won’t need to worry about that.” Aubrey placed a hand on Viola’s shoulders. “If you focus on the possibility of their deaths, it will consume you. Instead, be ready to change the plan on the fly, and trust in your friends to handle themselves. They’re a resourceful bunch when they have to be. And remember, it’s not your fault if something goes wrong. It’s only your fault if you don’t adapt to the new circumstances.”

After a moment of silence, Viola sighed. “You’re right. I just need to be ready to improvise.” Easier said than done. She pulled her knees up to her chest, squatting on the cold plastic chair. “Have, um... Have you ever. You know. Lost someone?”

It took a solid few minutes before Aubrey responded with a quiet “Yes.”

“How did you deal with it?”

“I didn’t,” she responded simply. “Inklings live for a very long time. Unfathomably longer than what you’re capable of comprehending. And the civil war hasn’t really left us time to mourn.” Aubrey seemed to shrink into herself, staring intently at the floor. “That doesn’t make it any easier, though. Sometimes plans went wrong. Sometimes plans went _right_ but Echelon’s forces still managed to take a few of us down with them. Sometimes Osoth decided one of us had outlived their usefulness. And that’s not even factoring in hosts.”

“That’s awful,” Viola said, feeling sickened to the core of her stomach by the thought of Osoth callously disposing of people who were of no use to her.

“It still doesn’t feel real. I still sometimes feel like they’ll just... _be_ there. Have always been there, because they never actually left. And then I realize that they did. And it’s been so _long_ that I don’t even really properly remember who they were or what they were like. Just that they existed and that it’s wrong and unfair that they _don’t_ anymore.” She frowned, and pulled herself upright, standing resolute. “Which is why we can’t fail. We _have_ to end this. Stop the bloodshed here and now, for host and Inkling alike.”

“Right...” Viola replied, decidedly not resolute at all. She didn’t think she could ever be quite so confident in her convictions. Especially when she considered what was going to happen _after_ they dealt with Echelon, one way or the other.

After all, though she’d never actually met Osoth, she didn’t get the impression she was the type of person who would stop playing just because one of her toys was broken.

“First we have to deal with Ami,” Aubrey said succinctly. “If we can’t beat her, we stand no chance against Echelon or any of her allies.”

“A-and when we... Deal with Echelon. However that ends up happening. What then?”

Once again, Aubrey’s silence was deafening. “Osoth will likely consume us and repurpose our remains into new, more obedient Inklings.”

“Right.” Unacceptable, as far as Viola was concerned.

“It’s like I said. No plan is perfect. Sometimes... Sometimes people have to die.”

“If a plan _requires_ people to die then it’s not a very good plan.”

Aubrey sighed. “You’re not wrong. Maybe... Maybe we _should_ try standing against Osoth after all.” She sat down again, slumping backwards in the chair. “No... No, that’s not an option. Osoth would still view us as faulty and would still consume us. And I see no possibility of overcoming her. This is a no-win scenario.”

Viola frowned. “I don’t think there’s such a thing.”

“I wish I could agree with you, but...”

“Well,” Viola said, “that’s.. That’s for later. Right now we need to focus on Ami.”

“You’re right,” Aubrey said. “This ends tomorrow. One way or the other.”

~~~~~~

Viola ached all over. That was getting to be an unpleasantly familiar scenario at this point. Every night she slept on dirt or concrete and every morning she woke up feeling like she’d slept on dirt or concrete. It was an unfortunate reality, and would probably _stay_ a reality for the foreseeable future. After all, even once they... _dealt with_ Ami, there was still the unpleasantness in Locksmouth. There was no _way_ they were going to be able to justify not immediately going off to intervene in the civil war, and Viola heavily doubted they’d be able to find a bed while there.

Slowly, she pulled herself up off the hard, cold ground. It was telling that standing up was currently the most comfortable position she could be in. She did a few basic stretches she’d seen Ursula do before in a futile attempt to vanquish the stiffness that had seeped into every single joint and muscle. Not super surprising. She wasn’t typically the most active person in the world as a baseline. Combining sleeping on the ground with _maybe_ one of her packmates as a pillow if she was lucky with being on her feet for almost the entirety of yesterday and it was no wonder she felt like shit.

She lumbered her way over to the backpack, pulling out a snack bar and grabbing one of the canteens. Breakfast of champions. God, she’d kill for a cup of coffee. She slumped against a nearby wall – she didn’t quite have the energy to stand up for prolonged periods of time just yet, even if sitting wasn’t exactly comfortable – and tucked in. It wasn’t exactly the nicest breakfast, but it was better than nothing. Or, worse, more _paste_.

The snack bar went unfortunately quickly. They were not, unfortunately, particularly filling – hence _snack_ bar and not full meal bar. They were designed to give people a quick burst of carbs and calories and other nutrition as a stopgap between meals, not to _be_ meals. Maybe it would help if she ate two or three, but the problem with _that_ was that their supply was significantly limited. If they all ate their fill, then there’d probably not be enough food to last them until they got out. Even factoring in that they were probably going to get out today, one way or the other.

“What _time_ is it?” she muttered to herself, pulling out her PET. They’d gone to bed on August sixth and it was now early in the morning on August seventh, which was actually a lot more sleep than she’d expected. Especially factoring in that they’d not actually even been awake all that long the previous day. Most of it had been spent walking before they found the Colosseum and the rest had been fights – none of which had lasted particularly long. It had only taken Ursula about five minutes to beat the Marquess, even if it had _felt_ like an eternity. And, while she hadn’t exactly _timed_ it, the fight against Makoto couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes tops, and the poker game _maybe_ fifteen. They’d fallen asleep not long after that, all of them mentally and physically exhausted. So, really, it wasn’t _actually_ all that surprising that she’d slept as long as she had.

Nor was it particularly surprising that she seemed to be the only one who was awake so far. The rest of her pack was cuddled in a small heap that she had previously been a part of. A three-way deathgrip hug that she was honestly shocked she’d managed to extricate herself from. She couldn’t help but smile slightly. Things weren’t exactly good, but... at least they weren’t fighting constantly anymore.

Still, something about this felt... off. _Wrong_ , though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it at first. Still too tired, to freshly awake to properly parse exactly what was different. It wasn’t that her friends were behaving like friends again, sort of. _That_ , at least, had been cemented with the group OC and the team attack that had beaten Makoto. She could believe that their relationship was, if not completely repaired, then at least no longer on the immediate verge of collapse. No, it was something else. Something her still groggy mind couldn’t quite put a finger on, not at first. Not until she remembered that they’d gone to sleep on the dirt floor of the Colosseum, and nowhere particularly near any walls like the one she found herself sitting against. The ground had also been _dirt_. Not exactly soft, but certainly not nearly this solid. White. Featureless. Sterile. Just like everything else. A big, empty cube, with a familiar looking doorway off on the far wall and another, less familiar looking doorway a few feet away from where she was sitting.

Viola’s heart slowly sank into the pit of her stomach as she realized what she was seeing. Where they were. And, more importantly, where they _weren’t_.

Specifically, they weren’t in Ami’s game anymore. There were only so many reasons that could be. Maybe Ami had gotten mad enough about their attempted cheating that she had dropped all pretense. Maybe the soldiers had somehow turned Ami off, or whatever power source she was running on had run out.

But somehow, Viola instinctively knew that wasn’t the case, and the sense of welling panic she could feel in the back of her mind confirmed that Aubrey was thinking the same thing as her. They hadn’t tried to leave, and they hadn’t gotten outside help (sort of), and it hadn’t yet been five days. There was only other loss condition that Viola was aware of. And it was, without a doubt, the worst case scenario.

“Oh no. Oh no oh no oh _no_.” Adrenaline once more kicked in, pulling her upright as she scrambled over to where her pack still slept. At the same time, translucent blue ink flowed from nowhere to slowly envelop her body. “Guys, wake up! Now!”

“Oogh.”

“What?”

“Five more minutes...”

“No! Not five more minutes! _Now!_ ”

“Okay, okay, I’m up, I’m up,” Ursula grumbled, rubbing her eyes groggily. “What’s the issue?”

“It’s obviously urgent,” Erin muttered, stretching idly. “Or else- Or else Viola wouldn’t be inked? Darling, what’s going on?”

“Woah, uh, guys? Where’d the Colosseum go?” Vienna interjected.

“It’s _gone_ ,” Viola said, panic mounting. “The whole _game’s_ gone.”

“Holy shit, yeah,” Ursula said, taking in the complete lack of any surroundings aside from a big, white cube. She attempted to stand up, only to wince and flop back down. “Ow, fuck. Shit.”

“Are you alright, darling?”

“No. I was right, I haven’t recovered enough to do any fighting.”

“Viola,” Vienna said, trying as hard as she could to hold on to her composure even as the same realization her twin had already had slowly sank in. “What’s going on.”

“The game’s over,” Viola said. “We were too late. Locksmouth has fallen. Osoth’s won.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, with that, we're basically caught up. All that's left is the ending and some epilogues.


	14. Act 14 - This Knotted Maze of Delirium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end.

The silence was _deafening_. Everyone stared in quiet horror at Viola.

“Viola,” Erin said, slowly and carefully. “Are you sure you’re not... perhaps jumping to conclusions? Just a bit?”

“Ami listed four ways that the game could end,” Aubrey said tersely. “If we got outside help or tried to leave, she would consider it a forfeit.”

“Well... Do the soldiers possibly count as outside help?”

“I don’t think Ami would have ended the game just because of that,” Viola said. “More likely she’d just... I don’t know, turn the soldiers off and then say ‘nice try’ to us and make us keep playing?”

“And it’s definitely not been five days yet,” Vienna interjected, already in the process of inking up herself. “Which means-”

“That whatever’s in Locksmouth has broken out,” Aubrey finished.

Erin slumped backwards like Aubrey’s words had been a punch to the gut. “No...”

“Bullshit!” Ursula shouted, before wincing and clutching at her body. “Ow. God- fucking _dammit_ , we still have two days left, this isn’t fucking _fair_.”

“We might still have time!” Vienna said, trying and failing to maintain composure. “We don’t know how long ago Osoth broke out! M-maybe Ami’s not launched the nukes yet!”

“It wouldn’t matter either way,” Delphi said, her ink slowly consuming Ursula’s body. “Host, can you stand now?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so. That helped a lot, thanks. I don’t think I can _fight_ , but-”

“It’s too late to fight,” Delphi interrupted, her voice sombre. “If Osoth has broken free of Locksmouth, then... Then that means Echelon has likely been forced to retreat to lick her wounds and recover for the next battle.” She swallowed heavily, choking back tears. “Locksmouth has fallen, and earth with it. The war will go on. We’ve failed.”

“Bullshit!” It was Vienna’s turn to shout angrily. “I’m _not_ giving up! Not when we’re so close!”

“Vienna, please calm down,” Erin said in a futile attempt to keep the peace. Even as she did, her own Inkling emerged.

“No no no no _no_. I’m not going back. I’m never going back to her,” Titania muttered frantically, clutching her head in a blind panic.

“There’s gotta be _something_ we can do!” Ursula said. “Maybe- I don’t know, maybe letting Ami drop a bomb on Locksmouth could slow Osoth down?”

“Slow, but not stop,” Aubrey said. “Nothing stops her.”

“Well, maybe- maybe we could buy some time so y’all could escape and try again?”

“Unacceptable,” Delphi said firmly. “I refuse to abandon another host to Osoth. Not again. If you die here, then _I_ die here.”

“No one’s going to die, stop yelling.” Ami’s voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, echoing through the massive empty space they found themselves in.

“ _You!_ ” Vienna shouted, officially losing her temper. “This is _your_ fault!”

“Woah, hey, easy there, no need to get snippy. It’s fine, there were just some... unforeseen circumstances. Though I mean, I kinda shoulda seen this coming once I learned that Cap’n Comet was apparently not only alive in spite of having died more than five centuries ago but was _in_ Locksmouth fighting the aliens.”

“Y-how can you be so flippant! Everyone in the world is going to _die_ because _you_ wasted our time with this _useless nonsense!_ ” It was Delphi’s turn to lose her temper. “At this pace it’s likely a matter of _days_ before Osoth has drained this planet _dry_.”

“Yeah, uh, she’s gonna have a hard time doing that considering she’s kinda dead? I think?”

Ami’s words hit like a freight train barrelling into a brick wall. “W-what?” Delphi said, after a moment of silence.

“Like, I don’t know if she’s _dead_ dead, but I got the impression that whatever happened was pretty permanent.”

“Impossible.”

“Nah, she went up against Cap’n Comet, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion.”

“ _Don’t toy with me!_ ” Delphi roared, that spark of rage once more igniting into a massive wildfire. “Osoth is a _god!_ _No one_ can beat her, regardless of who they are!”

“Cap’n Comet isn’t just anyone,” Ami replied tersely. “He’s _Cap’n Comet_.”

“I don’t care _who_ he is!”

“Look, I can prove it. Here, let me just...” A small, glowing sphere appeared in front of the girls. It floated in midair for just a moment, before slowly spreading and expanding until it became a frozen tableau depicting Locksmouth from above.

“This is Milly Evans, your eye in the sky, reporting to you live! As you no doubt heard and can see, the two factions within the alien force known as ‘The Inked’ are squaring off against one another. On one side, the self-described rebels under Echelon’s command; On the other, the invading Empress Osoth.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, some reporter, I don’t care. We don’t need the colour commentary.” The image froze, giving the girls a good solid look at what was happening. On one side were the same five Inklings from the earlier broadcast. At the head of the group was Echelon, flanked by Arus, Mhend, Koralo, and Phactys. On the other, what could only be Osoth. A canine woman of some sort, coated in black ink that was outlined with a deep red – just looking at her filled Viola’s heart with a sinking terror. The ground was covered in pockmarks of more black and red ink, like holes in the world.

Captain Comet was, conspicuously, absent.

“I thought you said Cap’n Comet was the one who defeated Osoth,” Delphi said, voice dripping with sardonic venom.

“Hey, look, I _could_ show you the footage of him beating the shit outta the weirdo blue tentacle portal dude, but if I give you the full play by play of the invasion then we’re gonna be here for _waaaaaay_ longer than either of us wants to be here.”

“He- he _beat_ Gatemaker Parthal?!”

“If that’s the blue tentacle portal dude’s name, then yes.”

“I- I could perhaps see them beating Laibon, _maybe_ , but Parthal is almost as much of a monster as Osoth herself!”

“Laibon, izzat the mind control dude? Yeah no they beat him too. Actually here let me show you, it was rad.”

There was a flash of light, and suddenly the footage was replaced with a different scene. Echelon, standing in front of a broken tank of some sort and facing off against a large bear coated in teal Inkling. They were surrounded by a crowd of large, aggressive looking alien creatures, slowly closing in on them slowly.

“Laibon! You’ve lost!”

“Not if I can get rid of you.”

The confrontation was interrupted by a loud, high-pitched whining noise. The source was obvious; a labrador woman in what appeared to be a battle-damaged police uniform. And, specifically, from the massive, mean-looking gun she had pointed at Laibon – only _slightly_ smaller than Sunny’s sniper rifle, big enough that were it not mounted to the tank she likely couldn’t possibly have used it. “I’ll take your surrender now,” she said, the shit-eatingest shit eating grin any of the girls had ever seen plastered on her face.

“... To an animal?” Laibon replied tersely. “It rankles, even the thought.”

The police officer responded by pulling the trigger, and what had to be _thousands_ of tiny spheres of blue energy went flying, colliding directly with Laibon again and again and _again_ until, with a final cry, the General slowly melted away from his host.

“And that’s not even the best bit!” Ami said, her eager grin practically audible. “You didn’t even see them _using_ that tank to blow away all of the monsters like they were _nothing_ and then they did a motherfucking Team Fortress 2-ass rocket jump and-” Ami caught herself. “Ah, well, we’ve got plenty of time, you can see that bit later. I wanna show them beating Osoth!”

The footage switched back to the confrontation with Osoth. Immediately, Echelon and her rebels began to attack each other. “What? Why are they-”

“Osoth,” Edifice interrupted. “Not even the strongest of the Elder Inklings can resist her will. Echelon never stood a chance.” Her voice was tinged with a quiet melancholy as they watched Echelon’s generals restraining her from pummelling Arus to death.

“Okay let’s see yadda yadda dumb boring philosophical arguing, alien politics... okay! Here’s the cool bit!”

“What you mistake for my personal decree is merely our deeper nature, dear Echelon,” Osoth said. If _seeing_ her had filled Viola with a sense of nameless dread, her _voice_ made that sensation feel like it was _nothing_. Cold and imperious and callous, but also at the same time it was strangely... _normal_. Like- like a mother, lecturing a misbehaving child.

And not just any mother, Viola realized as she looked closer at Osoth and at Echelon. The similarities were hard to spot underneath the Inklings, but they were undeniably there.

“We were made to dominate our hosts. We are the superior being.” The words made Viola feel sick to her stomach. Was that really true? Were Inklings just... made to dominate their hosts? She didn’t really want to think about it, but- but somehow, she just couldn’t accept that logic. After all, they’d all managed to get this far by working together, hadn’t they? Except for a few brief moments with Delphi early on, the only times Viola could think of where one of their inklings overrode a host’s will, it had been consensual. And yet here they were, alive. Practically _thriving._

No, Osoth was wrong. Inklings and hosts could absolutely have an equal partnership. And Echelon seemed to agree. “I once feared that,” she said. “I used to worry that you were right. But I never understood before today... How much of a _lie_ that was.”

And then, something happened. Something that all of their Inklings had previously made clear to be _impossible_. Aubrey’s eyes widened, Titania covered her mouth in shock and surprise, Edifice took a shaky step backwards, while Delphi took a step _forwards_ , accompanied by an indignant shout of “ _What?!_ Impossible!”

But it clearly wasn’t impossible, because here was footage of it happening, right before their eyes. Sure, the footage could have been fake. But... No. It was real. Viola knew for certain. There was no way that Ami could have faked the way seeing Osoth made her feel, deep in the pit of her stomach. But then how could Echelon’s host have jumped out of the Inkling’s body and charged towards Osoth? “Let’s see how you like me _dry!_ ” she cried, rushing headlong towards the Inkling queen, ducking low before jumping into a solid uppercut that collided directly with the monster’s chin.

“What- how- That’s _not a thing that we can do!_ ” Delphi cried. “Even if the host _did_ manage to make it back to Echelon before she died, how is she maintaining her form?!”

“I dunno,” Ami replied, her tone of voice making it clear that if she had shoulders she would be shrugging them. “I think maybe you’re putting too much thought into this.”

“She just did something that is _clearly_ impossible! I’m not _over_ thinking this, you’re _under_ thinking it!”

“Natalie! Now!!” Echelon shouted, regardless of both Osoth and Delphi’s cries of protest.

“You...” Osoth _seethed_ , her blinding rage practically audible. All of the cool control she’d had moments before had evaporated into nothing. “You existed... outside of her. Independent of your host. I’ve searched for this ability for ages! How?! I’ve dominated creatures completely, and never have they displayed any affinity for this! Of all the dumb luck that you should discover it before me!”

“No amount of dominance would ever do it. That was your foolish mistake.”

“You have to work in _tandem_ with your host, not... not terrify them!”

“Okay yeah more alien politics,” Ami said. “ _Boooooring_. I’m going to fast forward to the good bit again.”

“You- this is important, you idiot child!” Delphi snapped.

“Footage’s public record, dude,” Ami replied flippantly. “You can watch the boring stuff literally any time you want. I wanna show off the _good_ bits.”

The ground beneath Echelon and her generals started to shake, and then _buckle_ beneath their feet. The pools of dark ink began to undulate and writhe and _swirl_ , slowly consolidating together as more and more ink flowed from every crack and crevice. Building and growing, higher and higher, like a massive tornado that towered over even the tallest buildings in Locksmouth. But it _wasn’t_ a tornado. It was Osoth. Echelon looked around desperately for an escape route, before grabbing her generals and diving directly into a passing tendril.

“What? Why did she do that?” Ursula asked.

“Mirror Slide,” Delphi explained. “It’s an ability Echelon has. “She can travel to and from our homeworld by passing through mirrors and reflective surfaces. Using Osoth’s ink as a mirror substitute was actually somewhat clever.”

“Is that a hint of respect I’m hearin’?”

“No.”

“It totally is.”

“ _Not the time, Host._ ”

The footage jumped – presumably whoever Milly Evans was had to go and find where Echelon and company had come out.

“Comet CRASH!!”

“Holy shit, did she just Comet Crash a tornado?!”

“Host what is a Comet Crash?”

“That’s Captain Comet’s signature thing. He sort of... Okay, so like, quick crash course in Cap’n Comet’s powers. He can make things that are moving go faster and when things are going fast he can make force fields in the direction they’re moving that make things hit harder. And then when he uses both at once on himself, that’s a Comet Crash.”

“Interesting.”

“What _I_ don’t get is how is Echelon using Captain Comet’s superpowers?”

“That would be her ability as an Elite. It allows her to mimic the abilities of others. Ranging from skills a host has, like knowledge of how to operate certain machinery or certain physical abilities, all the way to copying the ways that other elites channel prana – in layman’s terms, she copies other Inklings’ superpowers. Apparently this extends to Captain Comet’s psyonic abilities.”

“Yo that’s pretty cool, actually.”

“Hmph. None of this changes the fact that she is a warmongering monster.”

“Sh-she didn’t _sound_ like a warmonger,” Viola interjected, wincing slightly as once again everyone turned their attention to her. “She sounded like she wanted to end the war just as much as you all do.”

“If she didn’t want this war then she shouldn’t have _started_ it in the first place,” Delphi said tersely.

“ _Guys you’re missing all the cool shit!_ ” Ami interrupted. “Come on, the fight’s almost over and I’m not rewinding so you can catch the finale if you miss it because you’re too busy talking about boring alien politics.”

“It’s _not boring_ , it’s _important_ , you petulant little-”

“Oh my _god_ shut the fuck up, Delphi, we’re gonna miss seeing how they beat Osoth you idiot.”

“ _I’m not an idiot!_ ” Delphi retorted, but after that she acquiesced to Ursula’s point. At some point, Osoth had been pulled out of the tornado of ink – likely by the Comet Crash – and had since picked up a fucking subtran and was attempting to crush Echelon and Arus with it.

Arus tilted the subtran slightly, and Echelon leapt over to stand with Osoth between her and it. “All alone now,” Osoth said with a snide chuckle. “The least powerful piece left on the board, in all but worthless ideology.”

“... You’re wrong,” Echelon’s host – Natalie, someone had said, unless Viola had heard wrong – said, fiddling with a bow that she had in her hair. She pulled it out, pulled a glove she had on one fist down tighter, and wrapped the ribbon around the other. “It’s because I have the other pieces around me that I’m stronger. Because my dreams make me strong enough to reach out and try, and my love protects me when I fail. Echelon! Give me SHADING!”

Viola wasn’t entirely sure what happened next – it all moved so _fast_. Natalie inked, and then... de-inked, except not. Like she was outlined by Echelon, making her presence stronger somehow, though Viola couldn’t put her finger on exactly _how_ , and neither Natalie nor Osoth gave Viola the time to process the new information. Osoth whipped up a veritable storm of tentacles, while Natalie charged headlong at the despot with righteous fury – using Captain Comet’s powers to immediately hit top speed, and Arus’s to completely ignore Osoth’s counterattack. They crashed into the subtran, and then _through_ the subtran, breaking through the doors one after another after another as though Osoth were a living battering ram. It was difficult to actually _see_ it happening, considering it the camera was outside of the train, but Viola could extrapolate. She couldn’t see it but she could _hear_ it, the crashes getting louder and coming faster and faster until Natalie and Osoth burst out of the other end of the subtran.

Only Osoth wasn’t there anymore. Just a middle aged looking wolf woman who looked even more strikingly similar to Natalie than she had when inked. The strange sort of highlight that had manifested around Natalie vanished, and the girl and her mother seemed to hang in the air for a moment before slowly beginning to fall back to earth. They would probably not have survived had Arus not quickly moved to catch them both.

“Annnnnd there we go. See, toldja.”

“ _How_.”

“I mean it was pretty straightforward, she just sort of rammed her through a subtran car until she died-”

“No, you- Augh!” Delphi threw her hands up in frustration. “It’s no _wonder_ she won, she _cheated_.”

“Cheated?”

“That thing she did where her host left her body? That’s _not possible_.”

“I mean clearly she _did_ it, so-”

“And _using two powers at once is not something that she is capable of_. That’s _not how her powers work_.”

“You’re obviously not right about that,” Ami said, audibly upset.

“It’s no _wonder_ she managed to beat the unbeatable god, she’s _already_ doing things that are impossible anyway!”

“If they’re so impossible how come she can do them?”

“ _I would very much like to know the answer to that question,_ ” Delphi snapped. “But _you elected to fast forward past her explanation of how she did those impossible things_.”

“Why does it even matter? The evil alien overlord is dead either way, that’s a good thing. Bad guy loses, good guy wins. You should be happy!”

“ _Echelon is not the good guy!_ ” Delphi roared. “For all her pretty words, do _not_ forget that _she was the one who started this war_.”

“Sometimes you’ve gotta start wars because the _other guy_ is super fuckin’ evil!” Ami retorted. “Unless you’re trying to say that Osoth lady was actually secretly the good guy the whole time because boy did she do a shit job of conveying it.”

“Osoth being a monster does not change the _fact_ that Echelon is directly, personally responsible for starting a war that has claimed more lives than you are capable of comprehending.”

“I’m a computer, I’m capable of comprehending some pretty big numbers.”

“You would crash if you tried. Count all the stars in the sky and then multiply that number by itself and you would have a _fraction_ of a _fraction_ of a _fraction_ of the number of hosts who are _gone forever_ because Echelon _just couldn’t accept_ that her chosen cure was _countless orders of magnitude worse than the disease_.”

“Yeah but the disease is cured now, right?”

“Which is going to _magically_ bring back all those trillions upon trillions of dead civilizations, yes.”

“Well, okay, yeah, that... Isn’t good, I’m not going to argue _that_ , but it’s not like Echelon _wanted_ that to happen.”

“Her intent does not matter when the result is not just _one_ genocide but _more genocides than it is possible to express using this reality’s numerical systems_.”

“That’s _enough_ ,” Aubrey interjected, stepping forward and placing an arm in front of Delphi. “No amount of debating the semantics of whether or not Echelon was justified in trying to overturn the former status quo will change the fact that she has _succeeded_ and is currently positioned to take over Osoth’s place as Queen.”

“But-”

“But _nothing_ ,” Aubrey snapped – though, really she was being Fantoma now, Viola supposed. Regardless of who she was, Delphi recoiled slightly and shut her mouth. “Right now, we simply have no way of knowing what Echelon is thinking. It is entirely possible that her stated motivations are genuine if misguided, and it is equally possible that it was a simple bid for power under the guise of a popular uprising. As of now, we don’t know.”

“So what do you propose we do, then?” Edifice said tersely.

“We wait and we watch. See firsthand what kind of leader Echelon is in peacetime. I refuse to discount the possibility that she is genuinely a better ruler than Osoth. And if _not_ , I’m certain Emnas would be more than willing to accept all the allies he can get.”

“Who the _fuck_ is Emnas?”

“That,” Delphi said, voice dripping with irony. “Would be _boring alien politics_.”

“ _The point_ ,” Fantoma said, giving Delphi a glare. “Is that right now we have higher priorities.”

“Like what?” Vienna said.

Fantoma did not respond, or at least not to Vienna. She turned away from the group, stepping forward and looking up at the ceiling before closing her eyes, just for a moment.

It was Viola who opened them, and Viola who spoke next. “Does- um. D-does this mean that we can, you know, go home?”

This seemed to catch everyone off-guard, not the least of which being Ami herself. “What?”

“Th-the game’s over, right? A-and the invasion is over, too. S-so, um. So there’s no reason for us to stay here any longer. So, um. Can we go home now? Please?”

“O-oh. Right.” It was difficult to get an accurate reading of Ami’s current emotional state, considering she didn’t have a face. They _only_ had the tone of her voice to go off of. But, even factoring that in, Ami seemed to wear her emotions on her sleeve. It was extremely clear that she wasn’t pleased about hearing Viola ask that particular question. “Well, um... Yeah, the _invasion’s_ over, but the _aliens_ are totally still there!”

“Oh _come on!_ ” Ursula said with a frustrated groan.

“The only real world-ending threat has been taken care of,” Erin added. “At this point the vast majority of the remaining Inklings are clearly not hostile, and if any _are_ , destroying the world would be vastly overkill.”

“Okay, um. Okay, but what if they’re bad guys? You just said-”

“ _You_ just spent a whole lot of effort arguing that they _aren’t_ the bad guys,” Vienna interjected.

“Um-”

“And anyway, are you _seriously_ going to drop bombs on Cap’n Comet?” Ursula added. “That’s something a supervillain would do.”

“Shit. You’re right. Fine, forget the nukes, that was dumb anyway.”

“What the _fuck_ is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“It means that we can just come up with a concept that doesn’t involve the nukes because the nukes were dumb!”

“Actually, you know what?” Ursula said. “I ain’t goin’ _anywhere_ until we’re sure this can’t ever happen again.”

“What?”

“She _means_ ,” Vienna said, narrowing her gaze (or at least as much as was possible given Edifice’s lack of a face). “That we’re gonna find your stupid nukes and dismantle them. And we’re gonna make sure you can’t put them back together either.”

“Oh! Okay, yeah, I can work with that! That’s not a bad concept for a game. Same time limit, gotta find and destroy the nukes or-”

“No more fucking games,” Ursula snapped. “You’re just gonna sit there and _let us get this shit over with_ or else I’m gonna start breaking shit and I’m not going to stop until there’s nothing left to break.”

“H-hey, now, that’s uncalled for.”

“Like fuck it is! You _threatened to destroy the world!_ I’m not just gonna let you turn that into some sort of fucking _game!_ ”

“Okay well it’s gonna be kinda hard for you to destroy the nukes _outside_ of a game because there aren’t any.”

“ _What?!_ ” That was Viola. The rest of her pack seemed to be caught off guard by the sudden burst of anger. “Wh- what do you _mean_ there’s no nukes?!”

“I mean that I lied, okay. I’m not a nuclear coordination AI. Even if I _was_ , it’s been five hundred years and ICBMs have a lot of moving parts that need active maintenance and even disregarding that who fucking _knows_ what effect all that radiation would have on the electronics.”

“Y-you-” Words completely failed Viola. She tried desperately to articulate exactly how this revelation made her feel and came up completely short of finding anything adequate. Like that same righteous indignation from when Ami had first made the threat of launching the bombs, but multiplied by a million. White hot burning rage bubbled up from deep within her before exploding outward, directly at Ami. “S-so... So all of this was _pointless?_ We spent _days_ down here with _no water_ and only a handful of breakfast bars for food and Erin almost bled to death and Ursula almost got _beaten_ to death and _I almost got eaten alive_ and it was all to stop you from launching bombs _that don’t even fucking exist?!_ ”

“Well... Yeah,” Ami said sheepishly. “I _told_ you it was a game.”

“Wh- _we almost died!_ ”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” Ami said. “I mean, yeah, okay, Erin got shot, that wasn’t supposed to happen and I’m still kind of mad at the soldiers about that. B-but it’s not like I was _actually_ going to eat you or beat Ursula to death or anything.”

“You sure coulda’ fuckin’ fooled me,” Ursula grumbled, subconsciously grabbing at her still aching body.

“I _told_ you all that it was a game a bunch of times! It’s not _my_ fault you couldn’t figure it out! Anyway, if any of you had ‘died’ I’d have just taken you to a resting room to recuperate for the next game.”

“What do you mean by ‘next’,” Erin said with a frown.

“Well, _yeah_ , I’m not just gonna play a game _once_ if I’m having fun with it.”

“Yeah, well, _we_ weren’t having fun at _all_ ,” Ursula snapped.

“Okay I _know_ that’s not true, you _literally_ said that you were enjoying the fight against the Minotaur. A-and after you beat the Marquess you specifically asked for a rematch!”

“Y-yeah, well...” Ursula found herself completely lacking a retort. Ami wasn’t wrong, she _had_ somewhat enjoyed herself, in spite of the spectre of the end of the world looming over everything.

“It doesn’t matter if the Host enjoyed herself for a few brief moments,” Delphi interjected. “I don’t pretend to speak for her, but I can’t imagine she particularly enjoyed getting her ribs broken. Or nearly being beaten to death _on several occasions_. And that’s not even getting _started_ on the _other_ three. On the whole, the negatives of this experience _vastly_ outweigh the positives. To think otherwise is the _height_ of naivete.”

“O-okay, fine, I’m willing to admit that maybe this whole thing coulda been better executed. I’m just too used to a specific group of players and so I didn’t do a good job of adapting to the new group! That’s fine, I made some mistakes, I learn from them, we try again!”

“No. No we _don’t_ ,” Viola said firmly.

“M-maybe we just need a different scenario. Like... Okay how about you’re a group of adventurers in a fantasy world who have to go rescue the princess from an evil overlord?”

“No.”

“Okay okay yeah maybe that’s a bit much. How about something with no fighting? You’re a group of archaeologists investigating some old haunted ruins and trying to solve the mystery of what happened and-”

“ _No_.”

“What about-”

“ _No more games_ ,” Viola snapped. “This is _over_. We’re _going home_.” With that, she turned and stormed across the big, empty space, making a beeline to what she recognized as the way they had come in.

“No!”

Viola found herself abruptly lifted off of her feet and _hurled_ backwards, colliding with the nearest wall – hard. “Viola!” Vienna screamed, running to her sister’s side as whatever it was that had picked her up vanished and she fell to the ground.

“Okay. Okay fine, I’ll admit I’ve made a shitshow out of all of this. It’s not been my best work. I’m owning up to that. But if you think I’m just going to let you all leave me alone _again_ , then hoooo _fucking_ boy do you have another thing coming.”

This time, the voice wasn’t coming from seemingly nowhere. No, Ami wasn’t taking on the role of the voice of god anymore. She was standing only a few feet away from them. Wearing a familiar oversized red sweater, with familiar black and white checkered fur.

Vienna’s doppelganger glowered. “Besides,” Ami said. “What kinda shitty-ass game doesn’t have a final boss fight?”

Erin rushed to Viola’s side. “V-Viola, darling, are you alright?”

“Oof. No.” The pain was dulled, muffled by Aubrey’s presence, but was undeniably there. It felt like... Well, like she’d been lifted up and hurled into a concrete wall.

Vienna shook slightly. It was difficult to tell what, exactly, was going through her head when she was inked, even for Viola. The way that Edifice didn’t have a proper face almost completely masked what was going through her head. But Viola was familiar enough with her sister’s body language that she didn’t _need_ to see her face to tell that she was _pissed_.

The twins exchanged a look. They didn’t exchange any words – they didn’t need to. They didn’t even need to do the Thing. Vienna nodded, very slightly, and after a moment Viola apprehensively returned the gesture. The message was clear.

Of course, Ursula wasn’t nearby to receive that message. Even if she _was_ , she _still_ probably would have ignored it and gone with her gut. And, this being Ursula, her gut said to run at the Vienna doppelganger and beat the _shit_ out of it. It probably wouldn’t have been a bad plan, were it not for the fact that she’d not yet properly recovered from the fighting the previous day. The only thing keeping her on her feet was Delphi, and she was only managing that because all Ursula was doing was standing up. She took a few steps forward before collapsing onto her hands and knees. “Fuck you,” she spat.

“Yeah, whatever.” Ami as Vienna lifted a hand in the air and then lowered it, crushing Ursula beneath a force field.

“Ursula!”

“Hey, I _gave_ you guys the opportunity to do this the easy way. That’s still on the table. All you gotta do is stop being jerks and play along and I’ll let you do _basically_ whatever you want. Except leave, of course.”

“ _Fuck_ you!” Vienna – the real one – wasn’t going to take this lying down. If Ami was going to smash her friends with force fields then, well, two could play at _that_ game. She flung her right hand downward as hard as she could, aiming where Ami had been standing but wasn’t anymore. Of course she’d vanished, whatever, that wasn’t the point. The force field collided with the hard steel floor that hadn’t been there before with enough force that it _bounced_ , but didn’t actually make a dent.

“Yeah, no, I’m not _stupid_. Did you _seriously_ think that I couldn’t possibly defend my projectors if I wanted to?” Vienna didn’t get a chance to respond. A doppelganger of Ursula materialized directly in front of her, kicking her in the teeth. The force of the impact sent her reeling and knocked her onto her back. She only barely managed to roll out of the way of the followup attempt to stomp her face in, desperately scrambling to get to her feet and get to _fighting_ dammit. She should have stood up _before_ attempting to fight back, really, but she _hadn’t_ and now the fight had gotten uncomfortably close to Viola.

Thankfully, Fake Ursula didn’t get the chance for another followup. A kick from Erin forced her to cease to exist, if only temporarily. “Damn,” she muttered under her breath. “Well, then, plan B. Try and get anywhere near Vienna without getting in my range.”

“I don’t _need_ to get close to her, duh.” As if to punctuate her statement, force fields formed around Erin’s legs. There was a sharp _yank_ and the mouse found her feet literally pulled out from under her, collapsing on top of Vienna ass-first. The rabbit only _barely_ managed to get a shield around herself in time. Thankfully, Erin seemed to not be anywhere _near_ her maximum height – maybe ten, fifteen feet at most. Which meant that she didn’t have _nearly_ enough ass to completely crush Vienna _anyway_ , but it would have still fucking _hurt_.

Unfortunately, while it did an admirable job of protecting _Vienna_ , it had the unfortunate side-effect of making Erin’s landing much more awkward and painful than it needed to be. Not that Erin objected to Vienna protecting herself. The full force of the mouse’s weight landing on top of her would probably have injured Vienna more than landing on the force field injured Erin. She didn’t get the chance to process exactly how much it hurt, though, as a giant doppelganger of herself grabbed her by the arm, lifted her up and _hurled_ her across the room.

“Erin!” Vienna shouted as Not Erin quickly made her way to where the giant mouse was attempting to get up, presumably with ill intent. She reached out in an attempt to grab the fake Erin with a force field, pulling herself to her knees in the same motion. She didn’t actually get a chance to _do_ that, though. Not Ursula’s fist collided heavily with the back of her head, knocking her flat on her face.

Vienna attempted once more to recover, to pull herself to her feet and actually get back in the fight properly. And, once more, she found herself not being given the chance. Not Vienna lifted her up by the ears using a force field, leaving her feet just far enough from the ground that she couldn’t get any purchase. Another force field kept her right arm in place while Not Ursula grabbed her left arm, preventing her from bringing up any force fields of her own. Once she was satisfied Vienna was helpless, Not Ursula lifted her free fist, pulled it back, and sent it flying directly at the rabbit’s face.

“Cheater.”

Not Ursula’s fist froze, inches from colliding with Vienna. “Excuse me?”

“You fucking heard me. _Cheater_.”

“Hey, I gave you a chance to do this legit.”

“No you didn’t and you _know_ it. You ended the game early and then threw a fucking tantrum when we tried to go home like a spoiled child.”

“H-hey-”

“If you wanted to make us fucking _hate_ you then congratulations! You’ve succeeded.”

“I don’t want you to hate me!”

“Well, hey, there’s an easy fix for that.”

“I’m _not_ letting you leave,” Not Ursula snapped.

Well. There was the easy option gone. But that was fine, Vienna hadn’t been planning on being able to convince Ami to let them go home. It would have been _nice_ , but it wasn’t part of the plan. “If you want _us_ to want to stay with _you_ , then maybe consider not intentionally making this fight unwinnable.”

“I wouldn’t have done that if _you_ had just played along in the first place!” Ami snapped. “I _told you_ that all you have to do is play along!”

“Why would I _ever_ play along if you put your worst foot forward and then just outright throw an unwinnable fight at us. _No one_ likes a cheater.”

Not Ursula glowered. “... Fine. No more abusing the fact that I’m a hologram to avoid taking hits.”

“You hafta be beatable.”

“Whatever, fine. If you can manage to hit me enough then that me will be out of the fight permanently.”

“No bringing in new stuff, either,” Vienna retorted.

“No deal. What self respecting final boss only has one phase?”

“So you’re just gonna keep conjuring up new things for us to fight until you run out of ideas or we die? No fucking deal.”

“Two phases,” Not Ursula retorted, holding up two fingers.   
“You and Erin both hafta fight two things. So I guess technically four phases but whatever, the point is that I get two chances to throw something at you and if you can survive that then you win.”

“And then we get to go home.”

“ _No_.”

It was worth a shot. Vienna had succeeded at the _important_ thing. She’d managed to haggle Ami into making the fight _beatable_ – and, more importantly, into making it _survivable_.

They didn’t need to win this fight, after all. Just survive it, and in the meantime keep Ami’s focus on _her_ and on Erin.

And _not_ on the fact that Viola and Ursula were already gone.

~~~~~~

“I need to go back,” Ursula grunted, struggling against Aubrey’s iron grip on her wrists. It was a futile effort, of course – Delphi had de-inked the instant they got into Ami’s facility proper. Ursula was left draped loosely over Viola’s shoulders, and the smaller rabbit had a death grip on her wrists.

“Ursula, we need to stick to the plan.”

“Fuck the plan, I’m not gonna let her kill Vienna!”

“Vienna can handle herself!” Viola snapped, thinking back to her conversation with Aubrey the previous night. “We need to trust her abilities or else this isn’t going to work.”

“Host,” Delphi interjected tersely. “Fantoma’s host is right. Even inked we can barely stand on our own. We would be a _liability_ , and I am _not_ going to allow you to kill yourself. Not now, when we’re so _close_.”

“Urgh... Whatever.” Ursula clearly wasn’t convinced, but she was in no position to fight back.

“We’re going to ink up again,” Delphi said. “Host, if you attempt to leave, I _will_ take full control.”

“Hey, we agreed to no more hijacking our bodies.”

“ _Unless_ it is absolutely positively no-way-to-avoid-it necessary, yes,” Delphi responded. “And I deem preventing you from making a catastrophically suicidal decision to fall under that umbrella, Host.”

“Right. Fine. Whatever. You’re right, and I _hate it_ , but you’re right.” Ursula glowered sullenly. “I guess I’m just gonna hafta be useless, then.”

“Oh ye of little faith,” Delphi replied as her ink once again enveloped Ursula. “You forget that I am not a combat Inkling. I am a _recon_ Inkling.”

“I don’t see how that’d be useful in this situation.”

“That’s because _you’re_ too stuck in a front liner’s mindset, Host. I would argue that this is _exactly_ the kind of situation my powers were _made_ for.”

“Okay?”

“Well,” Viola said. “She can see the past, right? If we can find the right time period, we could use that to see them turning Ami on.”

“Oh!” Ursula didn’t need to be told why that would be useful – if they could see how Ami got turned on in the first place, they could figure out how to turn her _off_.

“We should be extremely careful how we go about this, Viola. Just pulling Ami’s plug out could have permanent consequences.”

“Alright, yeah, but this is a starting point at least, right?”

“Right. I, uh, guess this means that step one’s gonna be figuring out when to look, then?”

“We have a general timeframe of when the project that resulted in Ami was running, but that’s still a _lot_ of history to scour. You’ll have to find a way to narrow that timeframe down before my powers will be of any real use.”

“Right. Let’s get to work, then. Remember, we don’t exactly have a lot of time to do this. Who knows how long Vienna and Erin can hold out.” That said, no matter how much of a hurry they were in, they could only move so fast. It wasn’t like they had any idea where to look first – they hadn’t even had a chance to take in their surroundings. For all they know, this was just a janitor’s closet and the _actual_ facility proper was hidden somewhere else.

Thankfully, they hadn’t stumbled into that particular worst-case scenario, or at least it didn’t _seem_ to be the case. They seemed to be in some sort of lobby, albeit one that had obviously not been used in _centuries_. There was a thick coating of dust on just about every surface, and thick cobwebs clustered in every corner. The room itself was a big rectangle with doors on three of the four walls and a collection of chairs. The girls had entered through one of the shorter walls, indicating that it _probably_ wasn’t actually supposed to be the main entranceway. “I guess that makes sense,” Viola said, mostly to herself.

“How do you figure?”

“Well, look at how _we_ got here. There was that hidden stairway that took _ages_ to go down, and then there was the projector room which was _huge_. Can you imagine _everyone_ who had to come here always having to go through all that every single time before even getting to a lobby?” She pointed at the door to their right, which was notably bigger, made of metal, and on one of the two longer walls. “ _That’s_ probably the _proper_ way in.”

“You think we could use it as an escape route?”

“Maybe, but that’s for later. We can’t exactly leave _now_.”

“I’m gonna check it out anyway. You scout out the rest of the room.”

“Right.”

Immediately upon walking up to the door, Ursula could tell that it probably _wasn’t_ going to be a viable escape route. It was a double door, made of metal and recessed slightly into the wall, with a set of buttons to the right. “Shit. This is an elevator.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I don’t know about you, but _I_ wouldn’t use a five hundred year old elevator that hasn’t had _any_ maintenance done to it in that time if it were only taking us up one floor, let alone however deep down we are right now. And that’s assuming there’s even an exit at the top _left_.”

“Oh... I guess that makes sense.”

“Did you find anything yet?”

“I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet.”

“Fair enough,” Ursula replied with a shrug. She turned and faced into the room. She held up her hands, with her forefingers and thumbs extended into a capital L shape and held together to form a rough rectangle. “Okay. Left is the big room and I guess some sorta emergency exit? And then this door is a complete bust.”

Which still left them with an uncomfortable number of places to search. There was another door to the right, and directly ahead of them there were two hallways on either side of some sort of reception desk. “This is probably a good starting point,” Viola said, making her way to the desk.

“So, like, is it just me, or does this place look like _shit_.”

“Well, it _is_ abandoned,” Delphi replied.

“I dunno, that doesn’t seem right.” Ursula frowned. The room looked like someone had ransacked it. The various chairs that every lobby had were all knocked over. There were various framed paintings of nature and motivational posters on the walls, and all of the frames were broken, glass scattered across the floor – some weren’t even on the wall anymore. The reception desk itself had _nothing_ on top of it, which felt _wrong_.

As if to punctuate that sense of wrongness, Viola circled behind the desk and immediately screamed, collapsing backwards and scrambling away. Ursula wordlessly rushed over to the rabbit’s side and immediately balked at what she saw.

“Holy _shit_ that’s a dead body.”

Neither girl had ever seen a dead body before, or at least not in person. It wasn’t a particularly _pretty_ dead body, either. It didn’t look like a person anymore, but had too much leftover flesh to be a proper skeleton. Though, really, after five hundred years that was mostly a semantic difference. The remaining skin had dried out to the point of looking like paper, though most of it was concealed by the equally dusty and dried out remains of the person’s clothing. It was still partially seated in a dilapidated looking office chair, which had been knocked over at some point in the intervening five hundred years. The most distinctive thing about it, though, was the large hole in the direct centre of its forehead.

“Why the _fuck_ is there a dead body.”

“Well, there _was_ that whole skin plague thing,” Delphi interjected.

“Okay but last I checked, viruses can’t use _guns_ to shoot motherfuckers in the face.”

“We... shouldn’t let this distract us,” Viola muttered, still clearly unsettled. “There’s, um. There’s places to check. Right? W-we should do that.”

“Yeah, for right now, the actual literal corpse isn’t relevant.” Still, both girls had a hard time keeping their eyes off of it. There were some knocked over filing cabinets, various sundry things that had clearly been knocked off of the desk, some scattered papers, but everything seemed to draw their attention back to the proverbial elephant in the room.

“M-maybe some of these papers have dates on them?”

“That would be extremely helpful. Even if we can’t find a _specific_ date, having a vague range is better than nothing.”

“Well, that’s a starting point then.”

They could not, it turned out, find a specific date. There were papers dated throughout the entire first half of the 21st century. And honestly there was barely even _that_. Five hundred years hadn’t been kind to the ink, leaving most of the writing almost illegible. Whatever struggle had killed the receptionist hadn’t helped, with several papers rendered even _more_ illegible by big, dark brown stains. But it was, as Delphi said, better than nothing. “We should start with the most recent date and work our way backwards.”

“Right,” Ursula said, not exactly enthused by what they might find at the most recent dates. Still, they _were_ on a time limit. She couldn’t afford to be squeamish, not now. Not when Vienna and Erin’s lives were on the line. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she lifted her hands up the way that Delphi had in their earlier dream-based explorations of the past. “Okay. Okay, uh. How do I make it, you know, do.”

“You just _do_.”

“Okay but _how_.”

“Host you’ve done this before.”

“No, _you’ve_ done this before, I’ve just _watched_ you do this. And that was a _dream_ not real life.”

“There is literally no difference between using my powers in a dream and using them while awake.”

“Okay, okay, but that doesn’t solve my problem.”

“Oh my god _fine_ I’ll take over and do it _for_ you.”

“No you won’t, I’m _fine_ , I just need to-”

“Look. It’s easier for me to _show_ you rather than to tell you. If I take over _temporarily_ , hopefully your muscle memory will do the rest. Hopefully.”

“Okay, fine, you get to take the wheel, but _only_ until I figure out how to do it myself.”

“Fine.” Ursula closed her eyes, and it was Delphi who opened them. “We’ll start with the most recent date and then move forward until we see people dying.”

“Could you maybe not be quite so blunt about it?” Delphi didn’t dignify the request with a response. She held up her hands, grasping an invisible knob and twisting slowly to the left.

The effect was immediate – slightly transparent spectres of Viola and Ursula re-enacted everything they’d done so far except in reverse. Delphi turned her hand farther to the right, speeding up the strange pantomime to the point where it barely lasted a second. And from there... Nothing. No movement whatsoever. Which made sense, considering this place had been abandoned for hundreds of years. But on the other hand, Ursula would have assumed they’d catch a glimpse of the soldiers coming to and from wherever it was Ami stored them. Maybe there was another exit somewhere in the big room that they’d not noticed? Possibly Delphi’s flashback power had broken somehow, but there _was_ at least the familiar unpleasant screech that accompanied rewinding and fast forwarding. _Something_ was happening, at least. They just couldn’t _see_ it.

“We’ve got five hundred years minimum to scrub through. So I’m going to have to forego any kind of precision in favour of expediting getting to the relevant bit.”

“Gotcha. We can fine tune after we get _literally anything at all_.”

“Give me just a moment and... Yes. Here we go. Something.” Delphi twisted her hand back to the left and the vague haze that neither girl had really noticed coalesced into a three-dimensional projection of the same lobby but intact. Everything that was _different_ was slightly transparent, overlaid on top of how things were in the present. The chairs were upright, the computer was actually on the desk, the generic still life paintings were intact, and most pointedly the receptionist was still alive.

The receptionist was, it turned out, a woman. It was hard to tell, given she was pre-splice, but she didn’t _look_ to be particularly old – maybe around the same age as the girls, maybe a bit older. She had short brown hair, neatly combed and cut, held out of her eyes with a pair of thick-framed glasses. Her clothing was the same as what her body was wearing, though without centuries of decay and dust. She was sitting at the desk, frozen in the process of typing something, with what looked remarkably like a PET wedged between her shoulder and ear.

“I’m going to start it up,” Delphi said.

“Don’t waste time saying what you’re gonna do, just _do_ it.”

“Hmph. I figured you’d appreciate a warning, that’s all.” Delphi gestured slightly and the tableau before them came to life.

“Yeah, I know, you’d think a top secret government job would be more interesting, but it’s just normal secretarial work. Yeah. Yeah. No I can’t tell you any more than that, I already probably shouldn’t be telling you that it’s a top secret government job. No, Stacy. No, seriously, this isn’t your usual NDA. Forget getting fired or even getting fined, they might end up _unpersoning_ me.” The receptionist rolled her eyes as whoever Stacy was replied. Her response was muffled and garbled by the phone – presumably five hundred years ago the secretary could hear it just fine, but Viola and Ursula _couldn’t_. “Look, unlike _some_ people I’ve got actual work to do. Yes. Yes I _did_ say it was boring, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to _do_ it. I told you, I don’t wanna risk getting fired by these people because lord fucking knows if they’ll actually let me go. I’ll call you back later and we can go out for coffee, okay? Stacy? Hello?”

The receptionist frowned, before slumping her shoulder and grabbing the apparent phone before it fell. “God damn _hung up_ on me, what the fuck?” she muttered. “That’s not normal. Something’s up. Ugh, why did this have to happen on a work day, I can’t even call her back.”

She returned her focus to whatever it was that she was typing, but only briefly before the door to the big room opened and the soldiers flowed in. Viola was caught slightly off guard by that – she’d almost forgotten that the soldiers were, in fact, around at this point. They looked completely identical to how they looked _today_ , from the faces to the pouches to the bodysuits. “Well, that was an absolutely _lovely_ training session, I’d say. We’re building a real solid group dynamic, guys.”

“Maybe one of these days we will be allowed to go out and do a real mission,” Makoto grumbled. Her voice was different, somehow. Slower, and with an accent that she _didn’t_ have in the present.

“We’re not _quite_ there, yet. Y’all still need to get fluent in English or else we won’t be able to coordinate properly.”

“Maybe you should learn to speak Japanese.”

“With all due respect to your beautiful mother tongue, I _tried_ learning Japanese in college and, frankly, no. Fuck that.” Bob, at least, was pretty much unchanged in spite of the five hundred year gap. The same lazy drawl, the same smug grin, and the same habit of getting on Makoto’s nerves. “Besides, _Ami_ is primarily programmed in English. Unless you want ‘em to hafta waste another decade or two giving her the capacity to speak Japanese because you’re too lazy to pick up English, little miss threatens to kill the cybernetics expert because he didn’t exactly duplicate your self-mutilation.”

Makoto frowned. “It’s important.”

“Yes, yes, your pride and honour and shit absolutely require everyone to be able to tell you’re an ex-criminal at a glance. I’ll give you the tats, if they _actually_ took a decade and thousands of dollars to complete, but a missing pinkie? Really?”

“Ahem,” Yuri cleared his throat, slipping in between the two. “We should try our best to get along,” he said. His voice, like Makoto’s, was tinged with a thick accent that wasn’t present in the present, though not the _same_ accent. “We are going to be working together for a long time, no? Best not to be constantly bickering, then. Besides,” he gestured at the receptionist with his head. “You are upsetting Miss Johnson.”

“Ah, heck, you’re right there.” The receptionist, apparently named Johnson, cringed slightly at the sudden attention. “Sorry for makin’ a spectacle of ourselves, ma’am.”

“It’s, uh, it’s fine,” the receptionist replied, clearly not very comfortable with the presence of a collection of killer combat cyborgs. “You’re wanted in the cybernetics wing. A checkup or something, I think?”

“We’d best head off to that now. Oh, by the way, Ami wanted me to tell y’all that she wants to get together and play some video games with you again at some point.”

“Oh!” Miss Johnson’s face lit up slightly. “I’ll make some room in the schedule right now, then.”

“Y’sure the higher ups’ll be okay with that?”

“Doctor Jiang says that properly socializing Ami is important if she’s going to be ready for active duty any time soon. Besides, it’s basically the best part of the job. Reminds me of babysitting as a teen.”

“Just try not to get yourself fired for playin’ video games on the clock.”

“Ami’ll put in a good word for me. Right, kid? I know you can hear us.”

“Oh! Um. I’m not supposed to use the intercoms except if it’s important.”

“I’d say that making sure I don’t go insane from boredom is plenty important, kid. I-” there was a soft ding from the direction of the elevator, prompting a frown from Miss Johnson. “Oh, for- there’s not supposed to be anyone showing up for at _least_ another three hours.”

“Izzat so?” Bob said, never once losing his cool even as his hand slipped to his waist and gently grasped his gun. “In that case, it looks like we might have an uninvited guest on our hands.” He gestured with his head while the other three soldiers also reached for their own guns. “Y’all might wanna get under the desk. Now.”

“It’s probably just some asshole who couldn’t bother to actually follow the rules.” She glowered at the elevator door as it slowly slid open. “Whoever you are, you’re supposed to _schedule_ things in adva-”

Miss Johnson didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence. A bolt of blue light shot out of the door before it was open all the way, colliding with her forehead. Her body collapsed limply to the side, settling into almost the exact position they had found her in.

“Shit!”

“M-miss Jane? I-I don’t understand, what’s going on?”

“Ami! Shit’s going down, go warn _everyone_ as quick as possible! _Now!_ ”

“R-right!” Ami’s voice went silent while the soldiers quickly dove into cover, knocking over chairs and the computer in the process. Exactly in time – the elevator door finished opening and whatever it was that had killed the receptionist flooded in. Strange, people-shaped things with grey armour and gas mask-like faces with glowing red eyes.

“What is happening?!”

“Are those fucking Nhiloids? I thought they all died in the fucking ‘90s!”

“Apparently they did not all die in the ‘90s.”

“Less talking, more _shooting!_ ”

“Tanaka and I’ll deal with things here. Sunny, you head to cybernetics and start evacuatin’ folks. Ovcharenko, you do the same in AI. We’ll catch up as soon as possible!”

Everyone nodded wordlessly before following their orders. Bob and Makoto stayed behind the desk, firing shots at the robots to keep them busy while Sunny and Yuri each went down one of the hallways – Yuri to the right and Sunny to the left.

“Stop,” Ursula said, and Delphi obliged. She raised a hand and the scene once again came to a halt. “That way. Where Yuri went. Bob said that it was the AI section, right? That means that Ami’s brain is probably that way.”

“A good observation, Host.”

“Okay cool let’s turn off the flashback now. We _really_ don’t need to see any more of this.”

“... Right.” The flashback dematerialized as Delphi lowered her hands. “I trust you won’t need my help with this as much in the future?”

“I think I got the gist of it,” Ursula replied, thankful for anything to distract her from the fact that she’d just seen a person get shot in the head and killed.

“Come on,” Viola said, her voice soft and slightly shaky. “Let’s... Let’s get going. We can’t waste time.”

“Right.” Ursula headed into the left hallway. Viola took one last look at what had once been a young woman named Jane Johnson, before shakily following after.

They couldn’t get out of this shithole soon enough.

~~~~~~

Vienna was not a fighter. That wasn’t really unusual – very few people _were_ fighters. People like Ursula, who gravitated towards solving their problems with their fists rather than their words, were the exception, not the rule. Which was, she supposed, a net positive. It wasn’t like there were _no_ wars in post-splice history, but they were all decidedly in the _past_. Physical conflict in the modern era was almost exclusively confined to sports, where the priority was more on making things look good for the audience than actual martial prowess.

But even by _those_ standards, Vienna was not a fighter. Before this whole incident she had never so much as thrown a _punch_ in her life. A fact that she was coming to regret _immensely_. Because, as Ami was admirably demonstrating, it turned out that a Vienna who _knew what she was doing_ was extremely dangerous. Although perhaps a lot of that came from the fact that Not Vienna was both up against someone who _didn’t_ know what she was doing and had backup in the form of Not Ursula. The latter of which was, frankly, not exactly fair. But Vienna elected not to point that fact out – she’d pushed her luck pretty far getting Ami to stop outright cheating. She wasn’t sure that she could survive both her own doppelganger and also Ursula’s, but she wanted to risk Ami seeing through the ruse even _less_.

And so she did the only thing she _could_ do and immediately went onto the defensive. She threw up both hands and projected a shield around herself. Not Vienna and Not Ursula both immediately set to pummelling it. Vienna could feel every blow that connected – and they connected _hard_. And, with Erin busy dealing with her own doppelganger, she had no one to help her.

Well, _almost_ no one. There was, after all, a fairly experienced soldier living inside her brain. “Edifice, I could use some advice here.”

“Given the situation, _your_ ability has effectively infinite range. But Ursula does _not_. She has to get close to you in order to hit you. Use that to your advantage.”

“Okay, I think I get you. If I retreat, Ursulami has to follow me. Which means that if I keep moving, Ursulami has to keep moving, and I can use that to focus on one at a time.”

“... Ursulami?”

“Right. Ursulami and Viennami and, uh, it kinda breaks down with Erin but whatever she can deal with that herself. The point is we need _some_ way to tell ‘em apart from, you know, the genuine article.”

“Now is probably not the time to be getting distracted with that kind of thing.”

“Fair enough. I can just dodge like I did against the bull dude.”

“No.”

“No?”

“You can only do quick but small motions. Good for kiting enemies and getting out of the way at the last second, but in this situation we need constant motion.”

“Well, I’ve gotta keep the shield up or they’ll fucking squish me and that’s the only way I know how to move with it up.”

“You’re going to have to come to a decision _soon_ , Vienna. You can’t keep this up forever.”

“I’m aware,” Vienna grunted. Her arms were shaking slightly from the effort of holding up the shield in the face of an almost constant barrage. As much as Ami had agreed not to outright _cheat_ , it was still obvious that the rabbit would tire out _long_ before the pair of holograms. She had to figure out a plan _now_ or she was screwed. But she couldn’t drop her shield to run, and she couldn’t use the same quick dodges she’d used against Asterion, so-

“Wait hold on.”

“What?”

“The shield is _round_.”

“So?”

“So I can just, like, _roll_.”

“what”

Vienna ignored her Inkling’s incredulity, an eager grin spreading across her face. “It’s human pinball time, bitches.”

“Vienna, wait-”

Vienna didn’t wait. She _yanked_ her arms back, pulling the shield forward in the process. The dodge gave her a burst of extra momentum that she used to roll the shield forward, in between Ursulami and Viennami and off towards the other side of the room. “Try and catch me now, motherfuckers!” She grinned even wider, the sensation of speed sending a rush of adrenaline through her veins.

Maybe this was going to be fun after all.

Vienna’s rolling quickly picked up speed, passing under Erin’s legs, and then Erin’s doppelganger’s legs – or possibly the other way around. It went fast enough that she couldn’t tell which was which, only that they were currently grappling. Each one had her arms intertwined with the other, hands on their shoulders in such a way that neither could really _do_ anything. That was intentional, on Erin’s part. She, like Vienna, was absolutely not a fighter. The only advantage she had in a fight was raw size. And, unfortunately, that advantage wasn’t an advantage right now because she was fighting herself. Completely, perfectly evenly matched.

Well, almost perfectly matched. Again; Erin’s knowledge of how to fight came entirely from movies, video games, and occasionally watching Ursula’s boxing matches. Ami had clearly not bothered to mimic that particular fact about Erin, hence why she’d very quickly resorted to the tried and true tactic of just holding her opponent in place and hoping. It had worked well enough against the elephant man a few days prior, and right now it was working well enough against herself.

Of course, the elephant man had only been around ten feet tall. Right now, Erin didn’t have any room to grow further. She was already at her theoretical maximum, and while she was pretty sure she could get _bigger_ , she _wasn’t_ sure how long she could _stay_ bigger. And, more pointedly, if _she_ got bigger, so did Ami. Anything _she_ could do, Ami could do.

What she needed was an _edge_. Some way to make this fight _not_ be so perfectly evenly matched. And, to be fair, she already had some ideas for potential applications of Titania’s powers that could give her a temporary advantage. But the key issue was that “temporary” caveat. Because once she _did_ it, if she didn’t beat Ami then and there then _Ami_ could _also_ do it and they were back to square fucking one.

“Titania, do you have any ideas?”

“N-no, sorry,” her inkling replied. “I’m afraid I don’t have the most vivid memories of fighting. But I _am_ fairly sure I wasn’t exactly one for finesse.” Damn. There went that potential plan out the window.

It wasn’t until Vienna rolled in between her legs that it dawned on her. This fight wasn’t Erin versus Erin, nor was it Vienna versus Vienna and Ursula.

This fight was Erin _and_ Vienna versus Ami. No one had ever actually said that it _had_ to be a mirror match.

“Vienna!”

“Kinda busy here, Erin!”

“I have an idea!”

“Okay, cool, that doesn’t make me not busy though.”

“I can rectify that, I think.” Erin prayed that the idea she had in mind was, in fact, possible, but she didn’t have time to worry about that in any kind of depth. The idea was, unfortunately, time sensitive. Already, the smaller doppelgangers were making their move to follow Vienna. And she couldn’t let that happen.

She allowed her legs to slide backwards slightly, and in the process allowed her ample curves to fade away. She couldn’t afford to waste prana on boobs right now, but in a way they were a key part of her plan. After all, if Erin could selectively make her boobs bigger or regrow a lost arm, why couldn’t she make _other_ parts of her grow out of proportion. She was not a particularly athletic person. _Ursula_ was the powerhouse of the group – the only thing Erin had on her was raw physical size.

But she could _be_ athletic if she wanted to. And right now, she wanted to. Suddenly, her muscle definition went from nothing to rivalling Ursula’s, and before Ami had a chance to react she _charged_ forward into her midsection and knocked her down, right in between Vienna and the other two doppelgangers. “Vienna!” she shouted without _actually_ articulating the next part of her plan in the desperate hope that she didn’t _need_ to.

Luckily, Vienna got the picture, sliding to a halt and dropping her current shield. “I gotcha!” she shouted before putting two shields around the fake Erin’s legs and lifting them up off the ground. The _real_ Erin, in the meantime, quickly rolled around and grabbed the fake Vienna and fake Ursula, one for each hand, as firmly as she could. Which, between her raw size and increased muscle mass, was actually quite firmly. At _least_ enough to thoroughly pin Not Vienna’s arms to her sides and thus remove her superpower from the equation, which was the _important_ thing. Not Ursula, likewise, wasn’t nearly strong enough to break free. She took a moment to catch her breath – once again, she wasn’t an athletic person, and this fight had taken more out of her than she was comfortable to admit.

“Hey, Erin, I don’t mean to rush you, but I can only hold you for so long,” Vienna grunted. It was _maybe_ slightly better than dealing with the combined pummelling she’d been getting earlier, but Erinami was still struggling, and Vienna was only capable of so much. She did not have the raw rage-and-adrenaline fuelled strength she’d had when finishing off Asterion, and there was still the second phase to worry about. “Hurry up and deal with Ursulami and Viennami and then sit on yourself so I can beat the shit out of you.”

“Right, sorry, darling.” Erin pulled herself upright before giving both of the doppelgangers a good, solid _squeeze_ , as hard as she could. Maybe a bit _too_ hard – there was a pair of sickening _crunches_ that drew an instinctive wince from the giant mouse. “... They’re not real,” she muttered to herself, before tightening her grip. Somehow, that didn’t really help. Her breathing came shallow and fast as she felt the haze of panic welling up in the pit of her stomach. “They’re not real. They’re not real. They’re not real.”

“Erin!” Vienna shouted, her voice piercing through the panic attack. “It’s okay. I’m – _we’re_ here for you. No matter what.”

Erin blinked back tears – at some point she’d started crying. “Right. S-sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Erin took a deep breath, pulled an arm back, and then _threw_ Viennami as hard as she could. “Catch!”

“I’ve got ‘er,” Vienna replied. She dematerialized one of the shields around Erinami’s legs, and rematerialized it in her doppelganger’s trajectory. The fake Vienna collided with it, _hard_ , and Vienna threw the shield into the collision, slamming her double into the ground. After a moment of thought, she lifted the shield and then slammed it into her doppelganger a few more times. Probably superfluous, but she wanted to make _sure_.

Erin grabbed her own doppelganger’s leg before Ami had a chance to leverage her newfound freedom. She _stomped_ on the other leg while pulling the one she had in her grasp as firmly as she could, wrenching it far out of its natural range of motion with another sickening crunch. “There,” she said with a barely disguised wince. “That ought to slow you down at least.” Still, a broken leg wasn’t going to be enough to take her out of the fight _permanently._ But it _was_ enough time for the real Erin to quickly position herself and then throw Ursulami into Erinami’s face, followed swiftly by a good solid punch. “There. And stay down, please.”

Thankfully, all of the doppelgangers seemed content to do exactly that. Erin collapsed backwards with a heavy _thud_ , and buried her face in her hands. “Oh my god.”

“Are you okay?”

“No.”

Vienna grimaced. “Hey, uh, listen. I think you should sit the rest of this out.”

“Absolutely out of the question.”

“You’re clearly not handling this well.”

“I need to get over this eventually.”

“Erin for fuck’s sake there’s some things it’s totally okay to be hung up on.”

“But-”

“And ‘I’m not comfortable with losing my temper and killing people’ is _absolutely_ something that it’s okay to be hung up on. I can handle whatever comes next alone, it’s _fine_.”

“It is absolutely _not_ fine, darling,” Erin retorted. “ _Neither_ of us could have handled that last fight without the other’s help.”

“Uh, I hate to say it, but I’ve kinda gotta side with Vienna on this one.”

“Fuck off,” Vienna said immediately upon Ami chiming in. The computer pointedly ignored the hostility.

“I know I said two phases, but... I don’t know. This doesn’t feel right.”

“Well, you’re going to _have_ to keep throwing things at us both, regardless,” Erin said tersely. “If you try and leave me out, I _will_ attempt to leave.”

“Fine, fine, geeze, I’m just tryin’ to be nice. Look, hold on, compromise.” Abruptly, a giant _wall_ sprouted in between Vienna and Erin.

“Wh-Vienna!” Erin shouted, immediately pulling herself to her feet and rushing over to pound her fists against the wall. “Vienna!”

“Ahem.”

Erin turned sharply – she didn’t have the patience for whatever the fuck it was Ami was up to.

Though, admittedly, her resolve was somewhat shaken when she saw what was behind her. It was a big, vaguely reptilian _thing_ with dark red scales. Though, on the other hand, in Erin’s experience lizards didn’t have fur. To be fair, she wasn’t entirely sure this thing had fur, either. It was thin and sparse, mostly located on her neck and trailing down its back in a thin line. Its body was longer than she was tall, though it was held almost completely horizontally so it actually only came up to about her waist. Still, that didn’t make it not intimidating – it was still quite big and, while its forearms seemed to barely be there at all, its teeth looked quite sharp when it revealed them by snarling at her. Its legs were like tree trunks, and its tail was like a whip and a club at the same time – it could definitely do some damage, if it wanted to.

It probably helped that there were five others behind it.

“Roar,” it said in Ami’s voice. “I’m a big angry T-rex that is absolutely in no way a human so you don’t need to feel bad about beating me up.”

Erin stared blankly for a moment. “Um. Thanks?”

~~~~~~

There were an upsetting number of dead bodies littering the AI department. It wasn’t _surprising_ , of course, considering what they had seen. Viola was completely unsurprised that the evil robot army had successfully slaughtered everyone. Not _happy_ , but not _surprised_ either. Of course, there was also the possibility that some people _had_ managed to escape and they didn’t know because, obviously, they didn’t leave bodies behind.

Somehow, though, Viola found that doubtful. And Ursula wasn’t particularly inclined to check.

The AI department was laid out fairly simply – a long hallway with labs and offices all lining the right wall. Eventually it took a ninety degree turn to the right, at which point the doorways started to be on both sides of the hall. Most of them were empty. “Actually, now that I think of it, that’s kind of... Odd,” Viola muttered to herself.

“How so?”

“There’s way too much office space and lab space for the number of, um, people that we’ve encountered.”

“Maybe that’s a sign that some of them escaped?”

“Or maybe they all retreated further in and died there,” Delphi interjected unhelpfully. “However, I have a different working theory.”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “You’re going to tell us anyway and I’m not going to give you the satisfaction of _asking_.”

“Hmph. Think back to the earliest point in this facility’s history that we’ve seen. It happened at roughly the turn of the twenty first century, _decades_ before the robot attack. And there was _already_ talk of the project not producing results. Most likely personnel were moved to other projects. Or possibly even died of old age. I’m surprised it lasted this much longer after the death of Cap’n Comet. Or, rather, the not-actual-death, as recent events in Locksmouth seem to imply.”

“That’s good, right? That’s less people these creepy robot fuckers coulda killed.”

“Hm. We’ll see,” Delphi said, clearly unconvinced.

“Well whatever, let’s check out this room next.”

The room was pitch black. Almost unnaturally dark – especially considering that the hallway had lights on, however dim, Viola found herself struggling to adjust to the sudden lack thereof. “Try and find a light switch or something?” she said.

“Yeah, gimme a sec- ack!” Ursula’s foot caught on something, and she found herself quickly upended and falling flat on her face. “Ow, fuck. I _really_ hope that was some discarded furniture and not a person,” she muttered.

“Hold on,” Viola said, pulling out her PET and using the light from the screen to inadequately light up the room. Ursula had, in fact, tripped on what appeared to be a dead body. But, on closer examination, it clearly wasn’t a _human_ dead body. Made of a familiar looking black and grey plastic, with a set of red and yellow wires coming out of its neck and no head at all. “Oh!”

“Izzat one of the Nhiloids?”

“The whats?”

“The evil robots. They were Dr. Nhilus’s henchmen. What _I_ wanna know is what the fuck are they doing _here?_ ”

“Well,” Viola mused. “If we’re right that Ami was supposed to be some kind of anti-supervillain defence system, then I could see why a supervillain would want to, you know, deal with that.”

“But Dr. Nhilus was _definitely_ long dead at this point,” Ursula said with a frown. “The whole reason that Cap’n Comet wasn’t around anymore at this point is specifically _because_ Dr. Nhilus was dead at this point.”

“Hm. Perhaps some kind of dead man’s switch. After a certain amount of time without direct orders they go on a rampage. If that were the case, it would imply that this wasn’t their only target. Also possible that they were acting on their own. Will have to investigate further when not on a strict time limit.”

“Right, well, what-the-fuck-ever. Viola, try and find a light switch or something.”

“Right,” Viola replied with a nod, turning her PET away from Ursula and towards the walls near the entrance. “Okay, um. I think this is a light switch?”

“What else _would_ it be?”

“I’m going to turn it on.”

“Right.”

Viola flipped the switch, and was rewarded with a small shower of sparks. “Ah!”

“I-I’m fine. I guess it’s just broken?”

“Honestly, considering the shape this place is in, I’m surprised that so many of the lights _do_ work.”

“Well, we’re going to have to check this room anyway, so-”

As if on cue, the room lit up. Not, Viola noticed after a moment, from the lights – they were still off. But it was _like_ they were on. Or had been on, at some point, she realized as she got a better look at the room. It seemed to be some sort of meeting room, with a large table in the centre. In the present, it was broken, like someone had taken a sledgehammer to the centre and snapped it in half. But also there was a second table, exactly where the real table was, but clearly a hologram of some sort – in addition to being intact, it was slightly translucent and blurry around the edges, with a blue tint to it.

Seated at the hologram table was a hologram woman. About Viola’s height, maybe slightly taller. She had stark white hair tied up in a bun and pale skin – though it was hard to get a feel for the exact shades given the blue tint – and wore glasses and a lab coat. “Right. I suppose I should get started. Hello, whatever future people stumbled on this message! I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to greet you in person, but the odds of me still being alive whenever someone stumbles on this place are astronomically low. I’m already past 60 years old at the time of recording and I’m not exactly getting younger. Oh, apparently I’m a grandmother now. I haven’t gotten to meet her yet, for obvious reasons, but apparently she’s a sparrow.”

The woman sighed wistfully. “I should probably just get to the point, or else we’ll be here all day. My name is Doctor Eliza Jiang, and this place is my life’s work. Literally – I joined the project at age twenty in the mid-90s, while I was still in college. And it is currently... quite a few decades since the mid-90s. I assume you’ve met Ami at this point. That was, ah, my doing. Not _only_ my doing, of course. But at this point I’m the only one left. Although I suppose there’s a chance that Ami hasn’t... hasn’t survived, given the way the project is going, so I should probably start from the beginning.” Dr. Jiang sighed again, removing her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why the fuck am I even doing this? I suppose I want to set the record straight in my own words, but... They’re going to mothball this project any day now. Likely permanently – it’s entirely possible they’ll literally bury it.” She sighed once again. “Well, I’ve started. Might as well finish.

“This all starts with Captain Comet. Of course it does. In the ‘90s, he was all anyone could ever talk about. Defined the decade in the same way that the September 11th attacks defined the 2000s. A real, honest-to-god superhero with real, honest-to-god superpowers fighting real, honest-to-god supervillains. And that was really the problem. Because Captain Comet was, well, a child. It was no _wonder_ no government particularly trusted him to manage to keep all the supervillain activity in check. Especially governments _outside_ of North America. Honestly, even the US wasn’t too keen on the fact that Cap’n Comet was just _one person_ , and a child at that, based out of one city on the east coast. There’s only so far and so fast he could travel. New Jersey was one thing. DC was another entirely. God forbid some supervillain decided to go full on worst-case-scenario and attack somewhere outright on the west coast or in China or Germany. So Washington did what Washington does and decided to spend way too many tax dollars on a contingency plan in secret.

“Of course, they didn’t do it _alone_. Just about every country in the world ended up getting involved. Billions of dollars of budget wasn’t so bad when the financial burden was spread across most of the UN member nations. Of course, at the end of the day, this wasn’t a UN project, it was a US project. Which was really the first problem. Other member nations wanted more of a say in this, more of a guarantee that they’d get protected as much as the United States. Which is why the soldiers are so multicultural. Right now we only have four, but among those four there’s an African American, an Eastern European, and two Southeast Asians. Likely by the time you’re viewing this, if the project doesn’t get mothballed in the next few months, there’ll be even more. Though I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. The point is that from the earliest days the investors were at each others’ throats.

“The idea was simple. Create a machine intelligence capable of coordinating military responses to superhuman activity across the globe, along with a military to _do_ the responding. Our own pet superheroes, cybernetically enhanced to be able to deal with just about anything. Completely without bias towards any specific country but at the same time completely subservient to _every_ government. They pulled all the best and brightest minds onto the project. _I_ got recruited to the AI team before even finishing college. In retrospect, accepting the offer right away was a mistake, but... that six figure salary was too tempting to pass up. For a while, everything seemed to be going smoothly. There was pressure for results, of course, but what a lot of people forget is that there _were_ results at all. We had Ami detecting faces and patterns in images and then recreating them _decades_ before Google put out DeepDream. Had things kept that pace, I imagine that by the time they _did_ put out DeepDream, we would be where we are now.”

Dr. Jiang’s expression darkened. “But... Well, things didn’t keep that pace. Not through any fault of our own. The first wrench in the works was when Cap’n Comet beat Dr. Nhilus. The man primarily responsible for almost every other supervillain Cap’n Comet went up against. Suddenly there was a lot less incentive to pour money into this project. General Jefferson managed to convince them that just because _one_ supervillain was gone didn’t mean there wouldn’t ever be others, and that the death of Cap’n Comet only increased the urgency of this project. So we didn’t get _killed_ outright, at least. But... It’s undeniable that the funding slowed down significantly. And, as a result, so did progress. People left the teams, one after another – we simply couldn’t _afford_ to have all the best and brightest minds in Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence employed in one place anymore. But we persevered. The Cybernetics division especially received a huge boost when they managed to get their hands on the remains of some of Nhilus’s old deathbots and reverse engineer the technology behind them. It took a few decades to iron out the bugs in _that_ system and to make it at all viable for our purposes, but it worked and now we have a whole _four_ cyborg supersoldiers to our names.

“Of course, that was a curse in disguise, as it were. Miss Jeon was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Through no fault of her own, of course, but... Once they learned that one of the first generation of supersoldiers was North Korean, _South_ Korea immediately pulled all funding. China and Japan followed soon after – apparently the fact that one of the _other_ first generation supersoldiers was Japanese didn’t make up for the presence of a North Korean. Several former Soviet Bloc countries also left over the presence of a Ukrainian, most pointedly Russia itself, due to the ongoing conflict over Crimea. To a lesser degree, the presence of an ex-Yakuza also didn’t go over particularly well. And _no one_ was happy that the squad’s leader was an American. There were accusations of nepotism, of course, and the fact that General Jefferson was... no longer with us by that point meant that our biggest advocate was gone. And so all the funding dried up. But that wasn’t what killed the project. No, what killed the project was the Skin Plague.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you know what the Skin Plague was. _Is_ , really. There’s a chance, of course, so I’ll give you a basic rundown, but I’m no virologist so it’s going to be a wholly inadequate explanation. In short, it was a pandemic of unprecedented scale. Millions of people died. Quarantine wasn’t a viable option because of the long incubation period – by the time we even knew it _existed_ , almost everyone was infected. Of course, all of the money went to trying to find a solution. There’s only about twenty of us left, and for what? There _is_ no cure to the Skin Plague. The only solution anyone has managed to come up with is for us to stop being human entirely.” Dr. Jiang’s voice was tinged with an undertone of disgust. “The so-called Post-Splicers... It’s not their fault, of course. They didn’t ask to be born the way they were. They had no input in the situation, no choice but to have been engineered by a supervillain. Doctor Chu may have saved humanity, but that doesn’t change the frankly monstrous things he is personally responsible for. And, of course, he took the opportunity to ‘improve’ humanity. Post-Splicers are genetically predisposed to be his idea of perfection, both biologically and socially. And, frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach. At that point they might as well not be human anymore.”

The woman’s expression softened, ever so slightly. “But... I don’t know. When I look at pictures of my granddaughter, I can’t help but hope. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s still some of our good old humanity still in there. I can’t exactly judge them – I’ve never _met_ a Post-Splicer, I haven’t even left this stupid cave since before the Skin Plague was a problem. I- I want to see her with my own eyes. Hold her in my arms. Introduce her to Ami.” She smiled, and though it was difficult to tell in hologram form, her eyes glistened with a small amount of moisture. “I... suppose I’ve gotten off topic. Technically speaking, the project is still ongoing. No one has actually officially cancelled it, even if all the funding is gone. In spite of those issues, though, it was a success. After figuring out the issue of keeping her brain from overheating, we officially activated her software one year ago, and confirmed sapience approximately six months ago. She is fully Turing compliant, and as of now is approximately on the developmental level of a ten year old child.

“She still has a long way to go, of course. As of now, she has a bad habit of playing a bit _too_ rough. Playtimes with Miss Johnson will hopefully help with that, and regular socialization has already helped her mature significantly. We just have to keep working on it and hopefully, once this all blows over, the progress we’ve made will be enough to secure us renewed funding. And, in the meantime, we-”

Dr. Jiang’s monologue was interrupted by a blaring siren and a flashing red light. “Wh-what? What’s happening?”

“M-mom!” Ami’s voice was audibly panicked, barely managing to string together a coherent series of words. “You’ve got to get out, now! Or-or no, don’t get out, you’d have to go through them, you’ve got to hide! Or-or something! I don’t know what to do!”

“Ami, please calm down,” the doctor said, just barely keeping her own cool. “You _know_ that panic won’t do you any good in any kind of real emergency.”

“This _is_ a real emergency!” Ami practically sobbed. “Th-there’s robots and they have guns and they’re _killing everyone_ and Miss Jane is dead and _I can’t stop them!_ ”

“Ami, slow down please. What happened to Miss Johnson?”

“I can’t slow down, there’s no time! They’re almost here!”

“I-”

There was a loud clanging _noise_ , and then the hologram cut off. Still, it wasn’t too difficult to get the gist of what happened next.

“Ursula?”

“Yeah?”

“I... think that maybe unplugging Ami might not be the right thing to do after all.”

“Mm. Yeah. I think I see what you mean.”

“When you think about it, it’s not really all that different from killing her. It’s not like we intend to _leave_ her unplugged, but if we plugged her back in she’d just go right back to keeping us locked down here, so-”

“Viola, it’s fine. You don’t need to justify it to me.”

“I know.” Viola sighed, leaning against a wall and slowly sliding down onto the floor. “I just... if we’re not going to turn Ami, off, what _are_ we going to do?”

“I don’t know.” Ursula couldn’t help but let out a small, bitter laugh. “Some fucking Alpha I am.”

“Ursula-”

“Don’t, Viola. I get where you’re coming from, but _don’t_. Every single time I’ve had to make _any_ kinda leadership decision, I’ve just... not. It’s like Erin says, all I’m good at is punching things.”

“Host, that is objectively untrue.”

“Oh, fuck _off_ ,” Ursula snapped. “I _really_ don’t need you being snide at me right now.”

“I’m not being snide. Your leadership has been... _lacking_ , that much is true. But you have done far more than just punch things.”

“Like _what?_ ”

“Whose idea was it to bait the Minotaur into charging into the walls? And who was it who pointed me to the first bit of real information regarding Ami’s origins? And that’s not even factoring in my presence.”

“Oh, wow, that makes me feel so much better.”

“I’m being serious, host,” Delphi said tersely. “I’ve... Been thinking, ever since watching the video of Echelon defeating Osoth. Perhaps- Perhaps there is some merit to her philosophy. Of treating a host not as an ugly necessity for survival but as an equal partner. And perhaps if I had come to that realization _sooner_ , we would have reached the point that she and her host are at now. I still find myself unsure of exactly what that... _thing_ she did to defeat Osoth was or how it would affect us, but I _can_ say it would be immensely helpful if we could do the same.”

“Okay, but we _can’t_ so I don’t see how any of this is helpful.”

“Inklings and hosts become more alike the longer they are bonded, and we have been bonded for quite a long time, at least by host standards. There is... quite a lot more of you in me than I would have been willing to admit even a few hours ago.”

“Okay?”

“What I’m getting at is that we both have our own strengths and weaknesses, and that our respective strengths can cover for our respective weaknesses. We just need to learn to capitalize on that. You’re not _incompetent_ , host, just an idiot.”

“ _Hey!_ ”

“And therefore what you need is someone who is _not_ an idiot to help mitigate your impulsive tendencies.”

Ursula looked down at Viola. “Yeah. Yeah, okay, I think I get what you’re saying. But it’s _still_ not really helpful _right now_.”

There was a long moment of silence. Neither girl spoke – they were too busy trying to come up with something, _anything_ to do to solve this.

It was Aubrey who eventually broke the silence. “What if we just... _talk_ to her?”

“Huh?”

“It’s like Viola said yesterday. Ami may be a computer, but she is still a _person_. We’ve been treating diplomacy as completely off the table, but perhaps we were wrong to do so.”

“Like with Echelon?”

“ _Exactly_ like with Echelon. But _un_ like with Echelon, I think that perhaps it is not too late to adopt a different tack.”

Viola frowned deeply as she returned to deep thought. After another moment of total silence, she spoke up.

“I think I have a plan.”

~~~~~~

Vienna stared at the gigantic wall that had sprouted between herself and Erin in horrified disbelief. “I-”

“Look,” Ami interjected. “I promise I’m gonna go easy on her, okay? Nothing human. Nothing close _enough_ to human.”

“Right...”

“That whole last bit... wasn’t fun.”

“Right. Listen, can we talk about this?”

“I’m not letting you leave me alone again.”

“Okay, yes, but-”

“ _No_. We’re not talking about that.”

Vienna suppressed a despondent sigh. It seemed that it was up to Viola to get them out of here after all. She had no option but to fight. Even if her heart wasn’t really in it anymore. There had been, very briefly, a sense of thrill. _Exhilaration_. She had almost, _almost_ been enjoying herself, rolling around like a human pinball. That brief glimmer of fun had very thoroughly died with Erin’s panic attack, and was replaced with a bitter resignation. She didn’t want to fight anymore. She just wanted to go home. “Fine,” she said tersely, turning to face the arena proper. “Just do whatever. I don’t care anymore.”

“Hey, come on, at least _pretend_ to be interested in seeing what I’ve got lined up for you.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“ _No_ ,” Vienna responded, more firmly. “Just get this over with already.”

“... Fine. But we’re gonna hafta work on your ability to play along in the future or else _no one’s_ gonna have any fun.”

“No one’s having any fun regardless.”

“Come _on_ , why do you have to be such a joykill.”

“ _Let us go home_.”

“No!”

“Then _fuck you_ and _fuck_ your stupid game.”

“You’re not even giving it a chance!”

“Of _course_ we’re not giving it a chance,” Vienna replied, increasingly exasperated. “You _kidnapped_ us and are _holding us against our will_ and you seriously expect us to just happily play along?”

“I expect you to at least _try!_ ”

“How would _you_ feel if _we_ just sort of kidnapped you and forced you to stay in _our_ house forever?”

“I’d feel _great!_ ” Vienna frowned. “Do you have _any idea_ what it’s like to be me? Are you even _capable_ of _fathoming_ how long I’ve been alive and how much of that time I’ve been _completely alone?_ ”

“No, but we’re _going_ to eventually unless you let us leave.”

“No you’re not! Because at least you’ve got _each other_. Who do _I_ have? The soldiers? Do you seriously think they even _count?_ Even if they _weren’t_ just _relentlessly_ depressing _all the time_ , I can only even wake them up once every decade or so! _Everyone else_ I’ve _ever known_ is _dead!_ ”

Vienna winced. She’d _almost_ gotten through to Ami, but not quite. And the more she pushed, the more Ami lost her cool and the harder it would be to get across exactly why they wanted to leave so badly. But she couldn’t just stop. She had to _try_ , had to keep pushing. The only other option was to play along with Ami’s game. And she knew, somehow, on an instinctive level, that playing along was tantamount to giving up. To admitting that she was never going home again. “Listen, I-”

“No, _you_ listen! You don’t even _like it_ up there!”

“How would you even know that?”

“I’ve been watching you!”

“ _What?!_ ”

“ _All_ of you, everyone up on the surface! What else _can_ I do? I can pick up your transmissions but I can’t send out my own, so my options for spending my free time are to play stupid war games with the soldiers or to listen in on local post-splicer interpersonal drama and let me tell you, Esterwood sure does seem like a shithole. You even _consider_ stepping out of social lockstep and everyone _immediately_ starts spreading rumours about how you’re a freak. Don’t even _try_ and tell me that Erin’s the only one of you who’s been looking for a way out.”

“I-” Ami honestly wasn’t entirely wrong about that. Before Erin had announced her intentions to leave for Locksmouth, Vienna had been idly looking into a way out as well, both for herself and for Viola. Agriculture in Harbington or engineering on the Ring or, yes, manufacturing in Locksmouth. Or maybe help Viola start a career in showbusiness in Anchorsway – if she could get over her shyness, she could _absolutely_ spin her magic tricks into a career. _Anything_ to get out of Esterwood. Ami was right; Erin wasn’t the only person who could see the writing on the wall.

But this? This wasn’t it. They couldn’t live like this. Not her. Not Ursula. Not Erin. And, most importantly, not _Viola_. And frankly, neither could Ami. It wasn’t _fair_. To _anyone_.

“It’s not fair.”

“Not fair?! _Not fair?!_ You have _no idea_ what not fair _is!_ ‘Not fair’ is watching everyone you’ve ever known _die_ and being unable to do _anything_ to save them! ‘Not fair’ is being left _alone_ for _five hundred fucking years!_ ”

“I-”

“ _Shut up!_ ”

There was a high-pitched whistling noise that very quickly got louder before something slammed into Vienna’s face – hard. She found herself knocked back slightly as the yo-yo reeled back into the familiar hands of Cap’n Comet. She didn’t get the chance to properly parse what was happening before he threw another yo-yo her way. Acting purely on instinct, she threw up a shield around herself and then _yanked_ herself out of the way. The yo-yo slammed into the wall behind her hard enough to crack it, which she guessed was a thing Cap’n Comet could do? _Ursula_ was the one who read his comics, not her. Of course, Ami had _already_ demonstrated she wasn’t going to let up any time soon. She didn’t have the time for thinking – it was do or die. Captain Comet, or at least Ami’s Captain Comet avatar, didn’t miss a beat, pulling the second yo-yo back and then swinging it in a wide arc in Vienna’s general direction.

Once again, Vienna pulled herself out of the way, and this time she leveraged that motion into a roll. Unless Ami had decided to start cheating again – a very real possibility, considering how thoroughly she seemed to have lost her temper – then the biggest weakness that she currently had was that yo-yos only had so much string to work with. Which meant Ami had limited range, while Vienna did not. All she had to do was figure out that range and then _get out of it_ , at which point she could safely bludgeon Ami’s second phase into defeat.

Idly, she noted that she had, in fact, ended up playing along with Ami’s game after all. Sort of. Not that she had that much choice. It was this or let Ami beat her – possibly to death.

She continued to roll and dodge as necessary. There was only so long that she could keep it up, so she had to calculate Ami’s range as quickly as possible. Maybe make a few dirty estimates – ideally, _over_ estimates rather than _under_ estimates. She would rather be too _far_ than too _close_. And so she kept dodging while Ami thankfully remained in the same position, moving back and around to give herself as much room as possible to dodge in, until she was confident she was out of range.

Once again, she didn’t have the luxury of taking time to compose herself. Any delay would result in Ami closing all of the distance she’d just put between them. And so she had to act _now_ , while she was still relatively safe. She dropped her own shield, rematerializing it directly above Ami. The plan, such as it was, was to do a two-handed overhead slam directly into her, crushing her into the ground and hopefully leaving her open for a beatdown.

She didn’t even get the chance to _start_ enacting her plan. The instant she dropped her shield, Ami closed the distance between them, darting forward almost impossibly fast and slamming an open palm directly into her chest.

It hurt. A _lot_. Much more than any other hit she’d taken while inked. If she _hadn’t_ been inked, it would likely have shattered her ribcage into a fine powder. Even _with_ Edifice’s help, it was _agonizing_. And Ami wasn’t going to give her a chance to recover – she stepped forward and threw another few quick jabs, followed by another palm strike and then an uppercut to the chin that knocked Vienna off her feet entirely. She barely managed to roll out of the way before the follow-up stomp collided with her face. The next attack collided with a fresh shield as Vienna attempted to buy herself some breathing room. Attempted, but failed. It took all of her concentration to maintain her defences in the face of the unrelenting beatdown.

She wasn’t going to win this, she realized with a sinking dread.

But, on the other hand, maybe she didn’t _have_ to.

“Edifice, I have an idea.”

“Okay.”

“It’s not a good idea.”

“It’s okay,” Edifice replied softly. “I know.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Save your apologies for Viola.”

“Right.” The Captain Comet avatar finally let up, briefly retreating – it was obvious even to the inexperienced Vienna that she was planning on another charging attack.

The problem, she realized, was that Ami didn’t really properly understand the concept of mortality. Every human she’d ever known before now was either already dead or was effectively immortal. Of _course_ she didn’t _want_ to kill them, but she didn’t really understand exactly what killing them would even _mean_. She was _so close_ to grasping it, but her loneliness was blinding her to making the final connections necessary to realize why the girls wanted to leave so badly. All she could see was them abandoning her to rot in a hole for another five hundred years. She couldn’t see that she _herself_ was forcing _them_ to suffer the same fate.

Ami had moved almost entirely to the other side of the arena, and in the meantime Vienna had pulled herself back upright. The Cap’n Comet avatar lowered its body and began to run directly at her. “Comet...”

This was it. The last chance they had to get through to Ami. They _were_ going home-

Over Vienna’s dead body, if need be.

“Crash!”

She closed her eyes, lowered her arms, and de-inked.

Ami collided with her again. There was a sickening _crunch_ , and her body went flying across the arena and into the opposite wall with a _crack_. Vienna practically bounced off, slamming hard into the ground face-first with another noise that the human body _really_ wasn’t meant to make. She attempted to pull herself upright, but she was already in agony, worse than anything she’d ever felt, and attempting to move only made it _worse_. She could feel something warm and wet flowing down her face – tears, she hoped, rather than blood – and settled on rolling over.

The constructs were gone. The wall, the iron floor, Captain Comet, and whatever it was Erin had been fighting, leaving the still-giant mouse standing around in confusion. It was difficult to pick out any more detail than that – her vision was blurred and unfocused. She took a moment to catch her breath-

Only to realize that she couldn’t. She desperately gasped for any air at all and, panic welling in the pit of her stomach, failed miserably to inhale at all. Darkness encroached on the edges of her vision.

“No! No no no no no!” Ami screamed in a blind panic. “What- _why did you do that?!?!_ ”

“What? What’s happening?” Erin said, her confused voice tinged with fear.

“I- I don’t- help!” Ami cried in between panicked sobs. “Help! Please! She’s not moving and she’s not breathing and I don’t know what to do!”

Erin felt a sinking dread deep in the pit of her stomach as she began to slowly piece together what, exactly, was going on. “Please calm down,” she said, just barely remaining calm herself. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

Ami did not calm down, but she did at least make an attempt to explain what happened. “I was running at her and I couldn’t stop it in time!”

“Stop what.”

“S-she stopped using her superpowers! And I _tried_ to stop but I _couldn’t_ and I hit her but I didn’t _mean_ to and now she’s not breathing!”

Erin’s breath caught in her throat. She had somewhat seen it coming, but having it confirmed felt like a punch to the gut. Erin quickly closed the distance between herself and Vienna before de-inking and taking in the situation. The rabbit seemed to be conscious, or at least her eyes were open. Her body reflexively gasped for air like a fish out of water, but the telltale rise and fall of her chest was absent. Erin was reluctant to do anything more than a visual examination, because touching her ran the risk of making any non-visible injuries worse.

“Yuri,” she said, tersely. “Get him. Now.”

“But-”

“No complaining!” Erin snapped. “He’s the person best equipped to help her right now.”

“Y-yes, sorry.” Ami went silent, presumably because she was busy doing whatever was required to wake the soldiers back up. Erin didn’t really care, currently all her attention was focused on Vienna.

“Idiot. _Idiot_. Why on _earth_ did you think that was at all a good idea?!” Vienna, obviously, did not respond, staring silently up at Erin as her body continued to attempt to resume breathing. “I- God _dammit_.” She briefly considered going to try and find Ursula and Viola, but ultimately decided against it – she didn’t want to leave Vienna alone, not right now.

Thankfully, that turned out to have been unnecessary. Viola emerged from the doorway that led deeper into the facility, followed shortly by Ursula. “Ami! We need to talk.” Naturally, Ami didn’t respond, prompting her face to contort slightly with confusion. “Ami?”

“Viola, I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Ursula said nervously.

Sure enough, Erin quickly ran over. “Erin? What’s going on, why aren’t you ink-”

“Vienna’s hurt. Badly.”

It was Viola’s worst fear, realized. The worst-case scenario. Her breath caught in her throat. “No...”

“What happened.”

“Apparently she de-inked in the middle of the fight. Ami’s fetching Yuri, which is the best that we can do right now.”

“Why the _fuck_ would she de-ink?!”

“I should like to know the same thing.”

Viola barely registered her packmates’ conversation. It felt like she was drowning. Like the chamber they were in had collapsed in on itself, leaving her buried underneath the thousands of tons of rocks and dirt between them and the surface. “No. No no no no _no_.” She collapsed onto her knees, clutching her head as Aubrey retreated inside of her. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening.”

“V-Viola, please calm down!”

“Yeah, having a panic attack ain’t gonna help anyone.”

Viola tried. She _really_ did. But no matter how hard she tried to push the panic down, it only seemed to push _back_ all the harder. Pressure surrounding her from every angle. It was hard to breathe. Hard to think. She could, dimly, hear Aubrey screaming at her – the gist roughly the same as what her friends were saying, though with more urgency. And they were _right_. Now was the absolute _worst_ time to be panicking. But... This was _her_ fault. She had taken Aubrey’s advice, stuck to the plan, trusted in her friends... and it hadn’t been enough.

And now Vienna was hurt. Maybe _dying_. And Viola wasn’t sure that she could keep going on without her.

“Up.”

At first, it was just a part of the vague miasma of ambient noise that Viola’s brain was tuning out in favour of the panic attack. It wasn’t until something grabbed her by her hood and physically lifted her to her feet that the haze lifted. “Wh-what?”

“Welcome back to the land of the livin’, kid. Y’all okay?” Viola nodded slowly, and in response Bob gave a slight nod of his own head. “Ya’ can put her down, now.”

“Yes sir.” Whatever was holding her – Makoto, she realized after a moment – let go and left her standing shakily under her own power.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got Yuri lookin’ your sister over. Might need a few extra days down here to recover, but she’s gonna be fine. I promise.”

“R-right.”

“An’ hey, listen.” Bob closed the gap between them until he was practically directly in her face. “You’re doin’ good, but now you’ve gotta take it home. Don’t you go trippin’ up in the final stretch on me, y’hear?”

“R-right. Sorry.”

“Good. Now go out there an’ do me proud.”

“Right.” Bob stepped out of Viola’s way, and she slowly left. Away from her pack, away from the soldiers, away from... Vienna. Now, more than ever, she needed to stick to the plan.

She needed to speak to Ami one-on-one.

Once she was confident that she was far enough away from the others, she spoke up. “Ami?” No response. “Ami, I know you can hear me. Please talk to me.”

“I’m sorry.” There was no body language for Viola to pick up on, but as always with Ami, it wasn’t really necessary. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. When she was happy, it was obvious; when she was _angry_ , it was obvious. And when she was upset, it was _very_ obvious. Her voice was soft enough that Viola had to strain to hear it, and sounded to be on the verge of tears.

Viola sighed. “It’s... It’s not your fault. I don’t know why Vienna did what she did, but-”

“Don’t patronize me,” Ami interrupted. “Just... Just go. Okay? You can leave. Are you happy now?”

Viola frowned. “Not particularly, no.”

“Well, I don’t know what else you could possibly want from me.”

This wasn’t working, Viola realized with a sinking dread. It was essentially the _opposite_ problem from what they’d started out with. Just leaving wasn’t going to fix things, she realized that now. Turning Ami off wasn’t a solution. Leaving Ami alone again wasn’t a solution. Not _really_. Sure, both would probably _work_ , and be both easier and safer to boot. Hell, if Viola had kept on with the original plan and turned Ami off, then maybe Vienna wouldn’t have gotten hurt.

But, while they might have been _easier_ solutions, they weren’t the _right_ solutions. At the end of the day, Ami wasn’t going to learn from her mistakes if they didn’t even give her the _chance_ to. Turning her off was tantamount to murder, and abandoning her was almost worse.

“I saw what happened.”

“What?”

“Five hundred years ago.”

“... oh.” Somehow, Ami’s voice managed to become even quieter. Most likely, she didn’t particularly relish thinking about that day, and Viola frankly didn’t blame her. She elected not to press the issue.

“I wish you’d just told us in the first place.”

“Would you have listened?”

“... I don’t know.” Silence. “We’re going to stay here until Vienna’s recovered. Then we’re going to leave.”

“Okay,” Ami said, quietly resigned to her fate.

“I don’t know how our families will react to our having been gone for so long, so we’ll probably end up in trouble. But... As soon as we can, we’ll come back.”

“... really?” And, just like that, Ami’s voice went from crushing despair to just the tiniest glimmer of hope.

“ _Just_ to visit,” Viola clarified. “We’ll try and stop by as often as we can, but you need to promise you’ll be patient. Okay?”

“I promise! I promise!”

“Okay. Good. And... Listen. You can’t just let us go and assume that’ll make things right. I know you feel guilty about what happened. And I know you can’t change what happened five hundred years ago. Some things can’t be fixed. But this isn’t one of them. It’s going to take a lot of work, and it’s going to take time, but if you’re willing to put in the effort then maybe we can be friends.”

“Th-thank you so much! I’ll do my best, I promise!” At this point, Ami’s tone of voice had done almost a complete one eighty in tone. Still on the verge of tears, but now they were tears of joy. She spoke quickly, almost _too_ quickly, stumbling over her words in her rush to get them out.

“And in return, we won’t leave you alone.”

“Y-yes! Thank you!”

Viola sighed. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, one she’d not even entirely been aware was there in the first place. “Okay. Good. I’m going to go check on the others now, okay?”

“Okay! Thank you! I won’t let you down, I promise!”

Viola turned and headed back to the others. Her steps felt... lighter, somehow. Easier.

She’d done it. They were _free_. It was _over_.

It turned out that Vienna was going to be fine, thank _god_. The lack of breathing, which was the most concerning thing, was the result of having the wind knocked out of her by the impact. After a few minutes she was breathing about as normally as she was capable of considering that her ribs were very thoroughly broken, along with her collarbone and shoulder blades. She also had a mild concussion and some pretty nasty bruising, but nothing that she couldn’t sleep off in a few days. “I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. You’re more resilient than a pre-splice human would have been in the same situation,” Yuri had said. “Going by what I’ve seen of your ability to recover from injuries, so long as you don’t move her and she gets plenty of rest, she will probably be good to go in about three days at the absolute earliest.”

“Okay,” Vienna said, attempting to sit up. “Ow, fuck.”

“What did I just say?”

“Can I at least move into a more comfortable position?”

“No.”

“Okay, can _Edifice_ move me into a more comfortable position.”

“Please just stay still and get some sleep. I’m going to go fetch the water and your food, and when I get back I want you to eat something.”

“Okay, okay,” Vienna muttered.

“This is your own fault,” Viola said. “What were you _thinking?!_ ”

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it? You got through to Ami and we can go now. All we’ve gotta do is stop by and visit occasionally, that’s not too bad.”

“Oh my _god_ you almost _died_ you _idiot_.”

“Hey, I only broke a shitton of bones.”

“Please stop being so flippant about this.”

“Yeah... Yeah, okay.” Vienna frowned. “Sorry. I should have trusted you. If I could have held out for just a few more minutes, I’ll bet you could have gotten through to Ami even _without_ me breaking every god damn bone in my body.”

Viola sighed. “Just don’t ever do it again. Okay?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice. I am _extremely_ done with this whole superhero business, let me tell you.” She paused, frowning again. “At least, for now. Jury’s still out on Echelon.”

“As Fa- as _Aubrey_ said earlier,” Delphi said tersely. “For now all we can do is wait and watch. Hopefully we won’t need to worry. Hopefully.”

“Yeah hey speaking of which,” Ursula interjected. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do with y’all.”

“Well, I would assume that’s _your_ decision to make, darling,” Erin said. “You _are_ our Alpha after all.”

“Yeah, uh. Yeah. About that.” Ursula rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “I think... I think I’m gonna step down as Alpha. Sort of.”

There was silence, long enough to be uncomfortable. “Ursula-”

“Hold on, hold on, I ain’t done yet.” Ursula held up her hands and Erin elected to hold her tongue. “My leadership... hasn’t exactly been the best. Not just for the past few days, but pretty much since the beginning. I wasn’t Alpha because I was a good leader, I was Alpha because I was the biggest, and that just ain’t cutting it anymore.” She sighed, slumping back against the wall. “I can’t do this alone. My last decision as solo Alpha is that we need someone to be co-Alpha. Someone who can make up for my weaknesses.”

“If you think that’s best, I’m not going to argue,” Erin said.

“Who, though?” Viola asked.

“I should think that to be obvious, darling.”

“You, duh.”

“what”

“Well, _I_ am certainly not leadership material, and Vienna has aptly demonstrated that she cannot be trusted to make her own decisions without breaking her ribcage. And Ursula is obviously off the table.”

“You’ve been _way_ more of a leader than I have for pretty much this whole fucking debacle, babe.”

“Yeah, we definitely wouldn’t have _survived_ without you, let _alone_ managed to actually make it out. You had all the best ideas. And... Honestly, even beyond that, you’re pretty much the only person who’s actually been working to keep us together.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Look, yeah, it wasn’t working, but that’s not _your_ fault. _We’re_ the ones who spent all this time bickering like children.” Vienna smiled up at her sister. “You’re the best choice. And hey, it’s not like you’re gonna be alone. You’re _co_ -Alpha, remember?”

“Hoo boy.” Viola sighed heavily. “This is... A _lot_ to take in.”

“Well, you’ve got at least three days to process things. In the meantime...” Vienna held up an arm, wincing slightly before red ink enveloped it. “What are we going to do about these?”

“We keep them secret, at least for now. I can’t imagine that Esterwood is going to be very welcoming to Inked, especially after what happened in Locksmouth.”

“So business as usual, then?”

“Well, mostly. Hopefully we’ll at least get along better than we did. There’s also the fact that we’re... Probably going to be in a lot of trouble when we get back. Who knows how that’s going to turn out. We _might_ end up just having to improvise.”

“Well, we can cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, I’m gonna get some _sleep_.” Vienna closed her eyes. “Wake me up when the food gets here.”

“Right.”

And, across the room, Bob smiled softly at the girls. “They fuckin’ did it. Toldja they’d do it.”

“You did _nothing_ of the sort,” Makoto grumbled.

“Hush, you, everythin’ went accordin’ to plan.”

“Last I checked your plan was to keep them from participating in Ami’s game in the hopes that she’d get bored and I’m pretty sure _that_ plan went up in smoke literally day one.”

“Hey, be fair, it was day _three_ at least.”

“Whaaaaatever.”

“Anyway, I’ll have you know that the _actual_ plan was to blindly improvise an’ then claim that the end result was my goal all along.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“Really, the kids did all the work. We just gave ‘em a nudge or two in the right direction.”

Makoto sighed wearily. “Yeah. You were at least right about _that_.”

“Oh? Did you just give me a compliment?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

“Toooooo late, I’ve got that recorded and saved for posterity.”

“Fuck you.”

Bob laughed. “C’mon, let’s go get some rest.”

“Yeah. That sounds like a plan.”

And, with that, the soldiers left the girls alone to recover.

~~~~~~

Honestly, Vienna was fairly sure she was ready to go after only a day of rest. Viola had used her new position as co-Alpha to adamantly veto that particular plan. In the end, they stayed underground for a further three and a half days. Viola had been in favour of going for longer, but also they’d very quickly run out of food that wasn’t paste.

And _none_ of them particularly wanted to eat any more paste.

Thankfully, Ami had at least used her projectors to create a slightly more hospitable environment for them to rest in. Real beds, for one. Or “real” beds, at least, but fuck it it was good enough. She’d also given them access to the outside world. The girls collectively agreed to not actually contact anyone, though. At least not until they got out – they needed the extra time to come up with literally any kind of reasonable excuse for where the fuck they’d been.

Telling the truth was, obviously, out of the question, for a variety of reasons. Obviously, keeping their Inklings secret was one of them – after all, the most that anyone in Esterwood knew about them was that they were behind the recent events in Locksmouth, and that wasn’t likely to endear them in the slightest. Another was that, frankly, it was probably a good idea to keep Ami a secret, too. Or at least for _now_. Viola and the others had all come to _mostly_ forgive her actions, true. There were extenuating circumstances, after all, and she’d not really _meant_ any harm and was actively attempting to improve. But there was no guaranteeing that the adults in their lives would agree with them on that front. And then there was the issue of how exactly Ami and the soldiers fit into the fact that weapons were extremely illegal. They couldn’t guarantee that no one would attempt to use them for nefarious purposes, nor could they risk word getting out to other domes and some outsiders deciding Ami needed to die.

In the end, they decided that their cover story was that they’d lost their PETs, they fell down a hole, and Vienna had seriously injured herself in the process. Then they had elected to stay put rather than risk injuring Vienna further. It wasn’t even all that far off from the truth, technically. Just... de-embellished a bit.

Thankfully, leaving was a non-issue. Ami not only happily allowed them to leave, she’d even turned on the moving staircase so they didn’t need to _walk_ all the way back to the surface. Which was good, because while Vienna was at least capable of moving, she _wasn’t_ capable of doing so under her own power. Climbing that many stairs was outright out of the question. From there, the hardest part was making sure they didn’t trip on any errant roots. They made their way out of the woods without incident.

It wasn’t until they emerged from the Woods directly in front of Vicky and Lars that there was anything remotely resembling a problem.

The two groups stood and stared at each other in perfect silence for a full minute before anyone spoke up. “Are you fucking _kidding me?!_ ”

“Uh, hi Vicky,” Vienna said, waving weakly. Or at least as best as she was capable of while leaning on Viola.

“Don’t you ‘hi Vicky’ me you fucking _asshole!_ ” Vicky stormed over, stopping just short of grabbing Vienna by the sweater and throttling her. “Do you have _any fucking idea_ how much trouble _I’m_ in because of you idiots?!”

“Hold on, hold on, why are _you_ in trouble?”

“Why do you fucking think?! You ran off into the woods and then fucking vanished for a god damn _week_ and the only people you told were me and Lars!”

“Okay but that doesn’t explain why you’re in trouble?”

“Because I, in my infinite fucking wisdom, decided to _w_ _ait_ before telling people that you were missing in case it turned out to be nothing. And then _Lars_ , who is _also_ a _massive asshole_ , decided to _immediately_ tell Dr. Baas, and so naturally _I_ get in trouble for telling _second_.”

“Ouch. Uh, sorry.”

“Where the _fuck_ were you?!”

“Would you believe we fell down a hole?”

“Fuck off, no you didn’t,” Vicky snapped. “We spent _all_ day _every_ day for the past _six_ _fucking_ _days_ scouring those woods and there was _no fucking sign of you_ , hole or otherwise. Oh, and by the way, this was on _top_ of looking after my sister _and_ basically half of the kids in Esterwood.”

“It was a pretty big hole,” Ursula said. “Did you find our PETs, we lost ‘em.”

“Oh my _god_ I _hate you so much right now_ you _fucki-_ ”

Vicky found herself abruptly silenced by Lars’s hand being placed firmly over her mouth, leaving the remainder of her rant muffled to the point of being unintelligible. Eventually she calmed down, reduced to sobbing, and Lars tentatively removed his hand from her face. “Are you done?”

“I’m so glad you’re oka-ha- _haaaaay_ ,” Vicky cried, stumbling forward and giving Vienna a ginger but enthusiastic hug. Lars rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Viola.

“Are you alright?”

“Um. Yes. Vienna broke some bones, but she’s better now.”

“Okay.”

“That’s why we were gone for so long. Um. Had to wait for them to heal.”

“Right.”

“Didn’t want to risk making her worse. And we’d lost our PETs so we couldn’t contact anyone.”

“Okay.”

“So we stayed, um, at the bottom of the hole.”

“And that’s where we found you.”

“Huh?”

Lars turned away. “I don’t know why you’re not telling the truth, but you’ve got your reasons. I’ll cover for you. To make up for not waiting the full day.”

“U-um.”

“Consider us even.”

“Okay.” Viola stared up at Lars, never once breaking eye-contact. “Why are you helping us?”

Lars stayed silent for a moment, before closing his eyes and shrugging. That was, Viola supposed, the best she was going to get.

“I’ll cover for you guys, too,” Vicky said, after a moment. At some point she had pulled away from Vienna – Viola had been more focused on Lars and had thus not really noticed. “But you _owe_ me, got it? I’ve got six fucking months of community service because of you jerks, so the _second_ that we can be sure no one is listening in you are _absolutely_ telling me what _actually_ happened.”

Ursula frowned, and opened her mouth to make her opinion on the matter clear, only for Viola to hold up her hand. “Fine. Deal.”

“Okay. Then my lips are sealed.” Vicky sighed, relaxing just a little bit. “Come on,” she said, gesturing with her head. “We should probably go now. Who knows, if we wait too long they might put another six months on my fucking sentence.”

“Right,” Viola said. “Uh. Thanks?”

“Whaaaaaatever, so long as I at least get to know what actually _happened_ , and so long as you guys are okay with owing me a favour, I’m good.”

With that, Vicky turned and left, making a point of leading the way. Lars lagged behind a bit, before sighing and heading off after her. Ursula and Erin went next, both of them eager to sleep in their own beds for once.

Viola stayed behind for now, giving Vienna no option but to stay with her. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

“Are you sure? Because the others are leaving us behind.”

Viola closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of fresh air. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus, TKM comes to its epic conclusion. Or at least to its very, very [i]long[/i] conclusion. It feels surreal to be done with this; the first chapter was published more than a year and a half ago, and the earliest mention I could find of the actual planning point is more than two whole [i]years[/i] ago! That's a lot of time, but now it's finally finished! Some acknowledgements. First off, thanks to my patrons and commissioners and to everyone who has otherwise given me money for writing for being so patient with me hyperfocusing on this one project that is completely out of the wheelhouse of what drew you to me in the first place. Obviously, thanks go to Nori for creating the setting, and for prereading every chapter. Your insight was invaluable. Thanks to Spooky, Nori (again), and Lei for letting me bounce ideas off of you - this story would probably not have gotten off the ground without all that rambling. And, probably most importantly, thanks to everyone who read this damn thing. Even if you only read a single chapter, but especially the few of you who kept up to the end. It really, really means a lot to me that anyone at all gave this thing the time of day.
> 
> That's a lot of words, so I'll just cut myself off here. While the [i]story's[/i] over, there's still a couple of things to upload before we're [i]done[/i] done, so I'll save some stuff for those as well. Once again; thank you so much for reading this, and I hope to see you for whatever long-form project I do next!


	15. Epilogue 1 - Back to Normal...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... Or perhaps it's not quite the end after all.

The reaction to Viola and her pack emerging from the Woods mostly unharmed was mixed, to say the least. Equal parts relief that they were okay and angry that they’d gotten lost in the first place, all embodied in the form of Mama Coniglio. Sobbing and hugging Vienna maybe a bit too hard considering she was still recovering only to bounce over to grounding the girls for the rest of their natural lives. They’d managed to negotiate things down to a week before moving the conversation on to more important topics. Like, for instance, confirmation that their father was alive, as were Erin and Ursula’s parents. They were, for now, still in Locksmouth, along with most people who had been in the city during the invasion. There were a lot of repairs that needed to be done to the transit system – it had, after all, been the site of the final battle. They weren’t _stuck_ in the city – there were other ways out of Locksmouth besides public transit. But their parents had collectively agreed to wait until things had calmed down a bit before leaving, at least for now.

Their parents’ safety confirmed, the subject of conversation had very quickly moved back to the fact that they had, in fact, ran off into the woods with no plan and then vanished for a week. Arbitrator Luo had taken the lead at that point, which was probably for the best as he tended towards being fairly levelheaded. “You’re technically already being informally punished with community service anyway. We’ll just make it _formal_ instead. Six months, same as miss Ares. Nice and convenient.”

“Yessir,” the girls had responded in unison. Everyone involved was extremely eager to get this all over with as quickly as possible. Especially Viola, who was _extremely_ uncomfortable with the sheer amount of attention being placed on her.

Thankfully, things _hadn’t_ lasted much longer than that. Everything went smoothly and within an hour they were all back home, resting and recuperating. Erin, whose parents were still in Locksmouth, elected to stay at Ursula’s home until they returned. That was the extent of the logistics involved – everyone agreed to give Vienna the time she needed to recover before making them actually serve out their punishment.

And so, here they were, a week or so after they had escaped Ami’s facility, they found themselves once again standing at the entrance. Ostensibly, they were performing their community service by cleaning up the various debris that had ostensibly led to them being lost in the Woods in the first place. Vicky was with them for the same reason, and Lars was present to “supervise”. Technically, they were supposed to have adult supervision as well in the form of the Woods District’s caretaker, an elderly cougar named Erich Stefanowitz. But, well, he was _elderly_. Extremely so. He had been the caretaker of the Woods District for about as long as any of them could remember – hell, for about as long as their _parents_ could remember. It was probably well past time for him to retire, but _someone_ had to look after the Woods or else who knows how many more incidents like what had happened to Viola and her pack would happen? And so, when Lars had offered to look after the girls as they cleaned up in his place, he had reluctantly agreed. “But you all stay safe, you hear? No more getting lost.”

After reassuring Mr Stefanowitz, they made a beeline to the old shack. “Huh,” Vicky said, tilting her head slightly. “Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting _this_ to turn out to be a real thing.”

“So, what, you were kidnapped by a ghost?”

“She’s not a ghost,” Viola said, trying very hard to be patient with Lars and failing miserably.

“You would know better than me,” he replied, equally tersely.

“Yes I would, I spent a whole _week_ with her, and-”

“Guys,” Ursula interjected. “No fighting.”

“Fine,” Viola grumbled.

“I’ve gotta side with Viola on this one. If the urban legend was true, then we’d have gotten a call by now.”

“ _Aaaaactually_ , yeah, what’s up with that?” Vienna said.

“Wait, hold on, that part’s real?”

“It’s _supposed_ to be, at least. According to Viola, she got the call pretty much right when she got here. Door’s closed, too, so we can’t actually go in.”

“So wait, you _did_ get kidnapped by a ghost?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Well,” Lars said with a shrug. “We’ve got all day. Start from the beginning.”

“Right.” Viola closed her eyes, taking a moment to compose herself and also to decide exactly what to tell them first. After a moment, she elected that everything was just a _bit_ too far-fetched to expect them to believe without physical, tangible proof. And, while she currently lacked any kind of physical, tangible proof of _Ami_ , there _was_ something she _could_ immediately show them.

Slowly, translucent blue ink outlined with dark green flowed out, enveloping Viola’s body. “Uh... Right. Lars, Vicky? Meet my imaginary friend.”

“Call me Aubrey, please.”

Vicky’s eyes widened in awe. Even Lars seemed a bit caught off guard behind the usual stoic facade. “Wait, hold on, isn’t that-”

“Yes. I am an Inkling.”

“Woah. Okay. I think I can see why you decided to keep this secret.”

“We’ve all got one,” Viola said. “Um, I guess we can introduce you to them while we wait?”

“Host, I wish to make it known _again_ that I _strongly_ object to this course of action. The more people who are in on the secret, the more likely it is that someone will slip up or even elect to _intentionally_ reveal it, and-”

“Oooooookay yeah Delphi you’re just going right back in my brain until you promise to make a better first impression.”

“ _Hey!_ ”

“Yeah, sorry,” Ursula said with a shrug. “She’s just kinda like that.”

“And she’s, like, always in your brain?”

“ _Sometimes_ she shuts up.”

“ _Yeesh_.”

“Tell me about it. She’s _already_ bitching about this in my head.”

“Erin and Vienna’s are a bit more... sociable,” Viola said, somewhat apologetically.

“Speaking of which,” Erin said, before green and yellow ink enveloped her own body. “This is Titania.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Titania said, bowing slightly.

“And that leaves me. C’mon out, Edifice.”

“Hmph.”

“... A _bit_ more sociable,” Viola said, her voice just _slightly_ pained.

“Why don’t we take a moment to explain what we can do and who we are?” Aubrey interjected calmly.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“You guys should probably sit down,” Vienna said. “It’s... kind of a long story.”

“Like I said, we’ve got all day.”

Actually explaining what their Inklings could do was surprisingly easy – mostly due to the fact that they could just quickly demonstrate their abilities. Viola turned invisible. Vienna used her force fields to pick Vicky up off of the ground, much to the latter’s consternation. Erin showed off some mild size changing before clarifying her limits with words. And, finally, Ursula used Delphi’s abilities to show Lars and Vicky the moment when they’d entered Ami’s facility.

“Okay, I _think_ I get it,” Vicky said, before pointing to each girl in turn. “You turn invisible, you make force fields, you grow, and you can see the future and the past. Am I right so far?”

“In so many words, yes,” Delphi said through clenched teeth. Ursula had allowed her out on the condition that she be _civil_. She was, to be fair, making an admirable effort, relatively speaking.

“And you all used to work for that Osoth lady. Who was the bad guy. And now she’s dead and you’re not particularly bothered because she was the bad guy.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but essentially yes.”

“Gotcha. I, uh, think I get why you don’t wanna tell folks about this.”

“There are a _staggering_ number of potential ways people could react poorly to this, yes.”

“Delphi, behave yourself.”

“I _am_ behaving myself!”

“So,” Lars interrupted. “This doesn’t really explain where you all were.”

“Yeah, uh, there was something about computers and then something about bombs and then you got into an argument and then you went down the stairs, but that’s not really much context.”

“Um. Right.” Viola fidgeted nervously. “I was kind of hoping to have Ami around for this part, because... it’s a bit far-fetched. You probably won’t believe what happened if we just _told_ you.”

“Viola,” Lars said in his usual laconic manner. “I already believe you.”

“... Right.” Viola elected _not_ to reprimand him for being quite so willing to believe something outlandish without even being _told_ it first. She was going to _try_ to be diplomatic about this, god dammit. And so, instead of chiding Lars for his childish belief in the supernatural, she took a deep breath, and began to tell her story. She told them everything. Every single moment, though admittedly she glossed over some things like Erin’s mental illness or the occasional bit of OC, in one go. The only times she stopped were so that the others could fill in things she wasn’t there for.

“Wow. You’re right, that’s a _lot_ far-fetched.”

“You believe them, though,” Lars said.

“Well, I mean, on the one hand, just because aliens are real doesn’t mean I automatically believe in five hundred year old computer systems underneath the town. But on the other hand, you guys aren’t exactly the best liars.”

“Yeah...” Viola said, her tone of voice belying the underlying worry. “It’d be easier to prove if Ami would just call us...”

“Yeah, uh, I’m startin’ to get a bit worried myself.” Ursula nervously scratched the back of her neck. “Maybe somethin’ happened while we were away?”

“Maybe she’s just reluctant to contact Lars or Vicky?”

“I don’t know, maybe?” Viola resumed her nervous fidgeting. “I just wish she’d say something.

“Here I am!”

“Gah!”

“Ack!”

“What the fuck?!”

There were several more similar exclamations – including an amusingly high-pitched scream from Lars – and it took them a few moments to calm back down and actually take in what had _happened_.

“Geeze, you guys are high-strung,” Ami said. “Also, you came _way_ earlier than I expected! I figured it’d take at _least_ a few weeks before you could get away with sneaking off to see me so I totally wasn’t ready yet!”

“what”

“Oh, right! This!” Ami’s voice was coming from a small, spherical object. It was silver with several glowing blue stripes around its length, about six inches in diameter. “Remember when I said I can’t actually contact people because of incompatible technological standards? _Well_ , I’ve found a way around it! I salvaged some components from those cell phone things you guys left behind and combined it with my projector tech and some little innovations of my own and voila! Remote projector! This way I can hang out with you guys without you having to make excuses to go into the woods!”

“Oh.”

“And before you say anything, don’t worry! I’ve come up with a perfectly inconspicuous cover identity so _no one_ will question my presence! I’m Ursula’s fifth cousin once removed on her mother’s side – no, not that one, the other one. No, no, the _other_ other one. Totally flawless.”

Ursula gave Ami a blank stare. “I’m pretty sure,” she said after a moment of thought, “that my moms would probably be aware that I don’t have any third cousins, removed or not. I’m not even sure what that _is_.”

“It _means_ that I’m like five layers of uncles deep and also my parents are the same generation as you. _Aaaaanyway_ , my parents died in a tragic accident and you’re my closest living relative. Don’t worry, I’ve perfectly forged all of the paperwork so no one will ask any questions.”

“Someone is _absolutely_ going to ask questions about my cousin the sphere, Ami, holy _fuck_.”

“Oh ye of little faith! I _told_ you, this is a remote projector. Did you _seriously_ think I would put all that effort into coming up with a cover identity and _not_ make a disguise to go with it?”

“Maybe you should actually show us your disguise, then, darling?”

“Ah, right, yeah. I figured you all were mammals so I decided I’d be something different and then _bam_ , it hit me!”

With that, the silver sphere vanished, immediately replaced by a small, bipedal, lizard-like creature with blue-green scales and tufts of bright red feathers on its head, arms, and the tip of its tail. “Hell yeah! I’m a dinosaur!”

“Oh my god,” Ursula said, burying her face in her palms. “Couldja maybe try and be a bit more conspicuous?”

“Yes.”

“Wait no that wasn’t a challenge don’t-”

“ _Ra-a-aar~_ ”

“ _Oh my god_ , I was being sarcastic. Please stop being a giant lizard monster.”

“A tyrannosaurus rex,” Erin corrected. “I, um, know from experience.”

“I don’t _care_ what it’s called! What if someone _sees_ you holy _shit!_ ”

“ _Fiiiiine_ , if you’re gonna be a _killjoy_.” With that, Ami once again abruptly changed shape, from the forty foot long colossus to her original, smaller choice.

“Okay, that’s better,” Vienna said. “But I think maybe you’d better pick something more... _anthropomorphic?_ ”

“Oh, pfffft, that? Don’t worry about that.” She shifted to a more upright stance, her arms shifted to something more humanoid, and her talloned feet became normal human feet. She even had understickers on in the correct places. “There, see? Post-splice human version for when I’m in public. I can even wear actual physical clothing! But in _private_ , I’m a _hologram_ , I don’t need _thumbs_ so fuck it, I’m gonna be a cool dinosaur! I may be five hundred years old but I absolutely reserve the right to act like a child if I wanna and you can’t stop me! I’m going to eat candy until I barf, I don’t care that I don’t have a stomach because _I was alone in a hole for five hundred years!_ ”

“Ami,” Viola said, gently placing a hand on Ami’s head. “It’s fine.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll calm down. Just...” She sighed, and then darted forward to hug Viola. “Thank you. For, um, giving me a second chance.”

Viola was very briefly caught off guard, before smiling slightly and returning the hug. “Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“Still, it means a lot to me.” They stayed there for several minutes, hugging in silence, before Ami pulled away. “Anyway, yeah. That’s the plan! Soooooooo,” she said, abruptly shifting back to full velociraptor form. “Who are your friends? Introduce me!”

Oh. Right. Lars and Vicky were still there. Viola turned and awkwardly took in their reactions. Both were inscrutable, though in different ways. Lars had his usual expression plastered firmly on his face, while Vicky’s seemed to be trying to express every possible emotion at the same time in a vague grimace. Viola took a deep breath through clenched teeth.

Maybe things weren’t going to go back to normal just yet after all.


	16. Epilogue 2 - ... If Only For A While

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... In fact, perhaps it's only the beginning.

Sherman Hyde was not in a good mood. As far as he was concerned, that was perfectly reasonable. One would have to be a complete _lunatic_ to _not_ be in a terrible mood given the situation. He aimlessly stormed his way through the Travers Innovations and Modern Applied Technologies corporate headquarters. He had no particular destination in mind – he just felt a need to storm. Most of his attention was on the various charts and news reports and important correspondences that were holographically projected into the air in front of him. Somehow, though, he still managed to deftly avoid colliding with any of the myriad other people who were _also_ running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Which, to an outside observer, was impressive; Hyde was not a particularly small man. There were _taller_ people, to be sure, but he was heavyset and stocky. And, being a Rhino, he also had a pair of somewhat intimidating horns sprouting from his face that one would think would obscure his vision, as would the pair of sunglasses he was wearing in spite of being inside and also on the Ring.

But, somehow, that wasn’t the case. He avoided every potential collision with precision. And there were quite a lot of potential collisions. Thanks to the aforementioned holograms (designed by Dr. Travers herself), Hyde could work from just about anywhere in the world, but just about everyone else who was running through the halls was significantly less aimless than he was. Everyone was busy. Everyone had places to be. Of course they did, after what had just happened in Locksmouth.

Hyde only came to a stop when he happened to encounter Ellen Maclean, head of HR. And then only because she specifically spoke to him. “Hyde!”

“Tell me you have good news.”

Ellen grimaced, making it clear to Hyde that no, she did not have good news. “It... could have been much worse.”

Hyde sighed, somewhat unsurprised, before idly gesturing with his head. “Come on, let’s go somewhere out of the way.” They were currently taking up a significant percentage of the hallway, and so quickly ducked into a nearby cafeteria. Ellen, like Hyde, was not exactly a small person. Unlike Hyde, she _was_ tall, extremely so – a good seven and a half feet of shark. And she was originally from Anchorsway, so of _course_ she was also extremely wide. Busty and curvy, built like a mother, which was accentuated by the frilly apron she was wearing. Slightly less professional than Hyde’s own tan coloured suit, but he didn’t particularly care. She was good enough at her job that she didn’t particularly need to wear a suit.

Besides, Ellen in an apron was a sign that she’d been baking. It was her standard means of relieving stress, and Hyde wasn’t going to complain about the possibility of Ellen’s famous chocolate chip cookies. A single bright spot in this mountain of shit he found himself in. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Ellen said. “Just... worried.”

“Still no word from them?”

“Not on my end at least. And this is on top of everything else that’s gone wrong.”

“The Locksmouth Fabricatory is a complete write-off, at least for now.”

“That isn’t what I heard.”

“That Osoth person used it as a base. It isn’t beyond repair, but it’s also not in the best condition. Right now it’s all they can manage to make what’s needed to repair the damage to the town as a whole.”

“Damn.”

“You’re telling me.” Rather than having one big factory on the Ring, Travers Innovations instead rented space in Fabricatories all over the world. It was generally more convenient, but it _also_ meant that the Locksmouth branch going down in flames took the Anchorsway market down with it, along with Harbington and Esterwood and several other, more distant cities. “I suppose the bright side is that the population density is low enough that we can just get away with amping up production elsewhere to cover the slack. The more important thing is we’ve also lost a significant amount of manpower.”

Ellen clicked her tongue. “Oh dear.”

“Dr. Travers isn’t going to be pleased about that.”

“No. No she’s not.” Ellen groaned, taking a seat on a flimsy folding chair that was far too small for her. It creaked and groaned under her weight, though she didn’t seem to care much. “Hyde, what are we supposed to _do_.”

“What we always do. This is hardly the first logistical problem we’ve had to deal with.”

“I know, I know.” Ellen sighed again. “I’m going to have to do some recruiting. Somehow. Who knows where we’re going to find any prospective employees.”

“I’m sure that Dr. Travers has a plan.”

“She always does.” Ellen leaned back in her chair. “That woman always seems to be at least one step ahead of just about everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if she saw this coming somehow and has contingencies already lined up.”

“If she had seen this coming, it wouldn’t have happened,” Hyde replied with unshakable confidence.

“I suppose you’re right.”

Of course, all of this was dancing around the proverbial elephant in the room. The _real_ reason that the Locksmouth incident had hit Travers Innovations so hard. Neither of them particularly wanted to talk about it, but the subject had to be broached eventually. “I wish we at least knew _something_ ,” Ellen said. “It’s been more than a _week_ , you’d think we’d know if they were okay one way or the other.”

“Hrm.” It was all that Hyde could think to say. He was as worried about them as Ellen. “We just have to trust in Miss Corven’s abilities as a bodyguard.”

“She’s never really _had_ to demonstrate them before.”

“You’ve seen her, Ellen,” Hyde said tersely. “The woman’s bigger than you. She can take care of herself.”

“Against normal humans, yes. But put up against body-snatching aliens and giant monsters? You can’t blame me for being worried for them.”

“For now, all we can do is keep waiting.”

“I’m tired of waiting.”

“We’re all tired of waiting.”

As if on cue, Hyde’s PET let out a small ping that indicated he’d received a message. And, given who it was from, he wouldn’t be surprised if it _was_ on cue.

“Sherman, we need to talk. Come to my office as soon as possible. Bring Ellen with you. Consider this an official meeting of the Board.”

Hyde sighed at the use of his first name. He’d told Dr Travers a million times to just call him Hyde and yet she still insisted on not doing that. “You heard her,” he said as Ellen pulled herself up out of the poor, struggling chair. With a silent nod, the two of them left without further conversation.

After all, if this was an official Board meeting, then it wouldn’t do to delay.

~~~~~~

The President’s office was large and opulent. That had been Sherman’s doing. If she’d had her way, she wouldn’t have an office at all. She’d never been one for keeping up appearances, after all. But, well, Sherman had been insistent. She was the head of one of the world’s biggest engineering firms and needed to look the part.

Naturally, most of the space had been repurposed into her personal workshop. She’d never been one for the business side of things – that was why she had Sherman, after all. All she cared about was making things. She was an _engineer_ , so of course she used her office to engineer things. Her second in command and her head of HR had to carefully manoeuvre their way around discarded plasma cutters and sheets of metal and circuit boards and half-completed inventions to get to their employer’s desk, where Dr. Travers was waiting for them.

“Ah, you’re here. Good, we can get started.” Dr. Travers was not nearly as thickset as Ellen – though, admittedly, Ellen had an unfair advantage in the form of the Soak. Still, she was no slouch. A decent bustline and frankly more than decent thighs, coupled with a waspish waist. Or a mantisish waist, to be more accurate. Orchid mantis to be more specific. Everything about her was extremely pink, to some degree or another. Pale pink skin, darker pink hair, and even darker eyes. She was currently wearing her work clothes, which were also mostly various shades of pink. It was lightweight and skintight, but also extremely durable. She spent most of her time working with heavy machinery, so she’d designed her clothing to be almost impenetrable while still being extremely easy to move in. It also had the benefit of showing off her aforementioned figure, though now wasn’t exactly the best time for that. Fun could come later. Right now she had higher priorities.

“Our first order of business,” she said, adjusting her glasses as she stood up. “I have some good news.” She snapped her fingers, causing a holographically projected keyboard to materialize in front of her. Some swift keystrokes later, a full-scale hologram of the Travers Innovations head of security manifested in the centre of the room. The white tiger was the tallest person in the room (sort of), easily eight feet tall, with a prodigious chest and chiselled muscles. To an outsider, she was easily the most intimidating of the four members of the Travers Innovations’ Board. “Maggie got in contact with me. They’re both fine.”

“Oh thank _god_ ,” Ellen said with a sigh of relief.

“Yeah, uh. Hi guys!” Maggie Corven said, waving nervously. “Sorry it took me so long to get in contact with you. Our PETs both got fucking _smashed_ by one of the _big_ motherfuckers on, like, day one and I only managed to get replacements _now_. I _would_ have just headed back the instant we could get out of here, but it’s gonna be a while until the space elevators line up and they kinda roped me into helping with cleanup in the meantime.”

“The important thing is that you’re both alive and well. This is a weight off of all of our chests.”

“Yeah, still.” Maggie shuffled awkwardly, which was almost comical considering how big she was. “I feel bad about not, you know, making sure the boss lady knew her daughter’s okay sooner, you know?”

“Speaking of which, where is she?”

“Sleeping. Kid’s still tuckered out from everything that went down.”

“The important thing is that she’s not hurt, or worse,” Dr. Travers said with a nod. “On to less important business. The, ah, matter of the Locksmouth distribution zone.”

“You have a plan, I assume?” Ellen said.

“I always have a plan, Ellen.” Dr Travers once again made a few quick keystrokes, and Maggie’s hologram shunted slightly to the right to make way for a smaller projection of a dome.

“What’s this?”

“A small, somewhat backwater municipality nearby Locksmouth.” Maggie’s expression soured slightly. “It’s called Esterwood. It should sound somewhat familiar, I imagine.”

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“There was a small, local incident. A group of teenagers went missing in the local forest for approximately a week. You likely haven’t heard word of it, considering it happened almost exactly concurrently with the troubles in Locksmouth. That’s our opening. We’re going to be breathing new life into the town by opening a new, state of the art Fabricatory there. We’ll have to cannibalize some other branches, but luckily the bulk of the new employees can be imported directly from Locksmouth. Naturally, all of us will have to be present to personally supervise the construction.”

“Hey,” Maggie snapped. “You know very well that ain’t possible. I’m not allowed back there, remember?”

“Margaret,” Dr. Travers said, never once dropping her calm and friendly tone. “Leave that to me. You just do as you’re told.”

“... Yes’m.”

“Good girl. That will be all. You all have a lot of work to do regarding the logistics of the new facility, so I won’t keep you here any longer. This isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this, so I expect expedient work.”

Everyone nodded, Maggie’s hologram disappeared while Sherman and Ellen turned and left. Once Dr. Travers was satisfied that she was alone again, she flopped back into her comfortable office chair with a thwump and a sigh. At _some point_ she would tell them the actual reasons she wanted to build a Fabricatory in Esterwood. But until they could _all_ be physically present for a meeting, she didn’t want to take the risk that someone might overhear. This was _it_. Her _chance_. She had been waiting for this for _years_ and now it was finally _here_ , and so she was going to take every possible precaution to ensure it proceeded smoothly.

But that could wait. She had other priorities. With another few quick keystrokes, another hologram appeared in the centre of her office. “Sorry for putting you on hold for so long, Mary,” she said. “Something extremely important came up.”

“It’s fine, Linda. You’re an important woman!” Dr. Mary Baas smiled warmly at the sight of her childhood friend. “If anything, _I_ should be apologizing to _you_ for ruining your vacation.”

“Nonsense. You had to help with the search effort, perfectly understandable. Ah, speaking of which, I trust the girls are doing well?”

“Oh. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you knew.”

“It’s my business to know things, Mary.”

Mary sighed. “The girls are fine, for now. They’re in a _lot_ of trouble, but they’re fine.”

“Do you have any idea where they were, out of curiosity?”

“According to the students who found them, they fell into a hole and lost their PETs in the process. Somehow. And they didn’t escape on their own because one of them was injured and they didn’t want to risk making it worse.”

“I see. And you don’t believe them?”

“Of course not. They spent a _whole week_ in a hole and _no one found them?_ The least they could have done is come up with a more plausible lie.”

“I see.” Linda adjusted her glasses, the light catching on them and creating a brief shine that obscured her eyes entirely. “Do you have any suspicions as to the truth?”

“I don’t know, maybe they attempted to walk to Locksmouth?” She sighed with a dejected shrug. “But they absolutely didn’t have enough supplies to last them six days of hiking. And that doesn’t explain why Lars and Vicky are covering for them.”

“Well, I’m sure they have their reasons.”

“I know, I know, but I’m still _worried_.”

“It’s your job to be worried about them, Mary.”

“I know.”

“Anyway,” Linda said with a smile. “I do have some good news. I’ll be in town again soon!”

“Again?” Mary frowned slightly. “Linda, I know you- we _both_ were looking forward to getting to spend some time together, but you already nearly worked yourself to death clearing up your schedule for the _last_ visit. Please don’t hurt yourself on my account.”

“Ah, but this isn’t on your account. This is _business_.”

“... Oh?”

“Don’t tell anyone, as this is supposed to be a secret for now, but there’s a very good chance that Travers Innovations is going to be building a new Fabricatory in Esterwood to replace the Locksmouth branch.”

Mary’s frown turned into a confused grimace. “Are you sure that’s the best plan? Esterwood... isn’t exactly the biggest town in the world.”

“Yet.”

“Linda-”

“It’s a necessity. The Locksmouth Fabricatory is busy with the repair effort, and in the meantime our employees in the area are out of a job. That’s frankly unacceptable. Esterwood is closeby, and frankly it could use the injection to its economy far more than Anchorsway or Harbington. And I don’t particularly foresee Clarkston being receptive to the idea.” Linda folded all four of her arms on her desk in a matter-of-fact manner. This was the end of the conversation. “We still need to work some things out with the Arbitrators. Ah, speaking of which, how’s Beth?”

“... She’s fine.” Mary continued to grimace. “Listen. Linda. I’d love to keep up the idle chit chat, but I’m sure we both have a lot of work to do.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Linda said, waving dismissively. “I’ve already kept you an inordinate amount of time. We’ll be seeing plenty of each other in the immediate future, I’m sure.”

“Right. It was nice talking with you.”

With that, Mary hung up. Linda sighed. They had been friends for a very, very long time. But that friendship had always been very... superficial. Esterwood wasn’t exactly the most receptive to people who didn’t fit in. And someone like Linda stood absolutely no chance of fitting in. She was too _special_ , though she hated to phrase it like that because it sounded so _egotistical_. But, well, it was true. She was inventing things almost since she was physically capable of doing so, and that hadn’t sat well with the rest of the city. She’d not had many friends as a child. Really, Mary was the only one. And even then, it had always been more of a friendship of obligation. Mary felt _bad_ for the poor weirdo and so had given her token attention so long as she agreed to _try_ and fit in. Once she moved to the Ring and started to embrace her nature as a tinkerer, the friendship had naturally become increasingly strained, but Linda and Mary both did their best to maintain it anyway out of a sense of obligation.

“... Right. I have work to do.” Linda didn’t particularly want to think about that, and so instead she immersed herself in her research. With another few idle keystrokes she brought it all up in the air in front of her. One small, three paragraph article about the incident with the missing teens – the only real documentation she could find that it had happened at all – along with several pictures of each of the involved teens. Quite an eclectic group, by the looks of them. “Poor kids. I doubt Esterwood is particularly kind to any of you.”

In addition, there was a large collection of much more substantial articles on local folklore, and more specifically on the supposed Ghost that lived in the Woods District. There was also a series of historical research papers that came with some bits and pieces of pre-splice artifacts excavated from beneath the surrounding area of Esterwood. There wasn’t a _lot_ that was useful to her, but that was fine. Linda was smart enough to be able to piece together the gist, at least.

There was _something_ there. In the Woods, beneath the ground. She did not yet know what it was. But there was one thing she _did_ know.

She _wanted_ it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I lied it's not over yet. There will absolutely be more about these girls and their lives in the far-flung space future of 2541. Consider this a bit of a preview of Volume 2, though I'm not going to be working on it... [i]just[/i] yet. Not for lack of wanting to - I need to physically force myself to dedicate November to getting other obligations done before I dive back in to this. Once again, thanks for reading, and I'll see you probably in January-February for The Human Compulsion.


End file.
